"Realism absorbs the ideal by adding a few small imperfections. Example: it paints a few specks of mud on the white gown of the Lady in the Garden."

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All human beings seek the happy life, but many confuse the means - for example, wealth and status - with that life itself.  This misguided focus on the means to a good life makes people get further from the happy life.  The really worthwhile things are the virtuous activities that make up the happy life, not the external means that may seem to produce it.

— Epictetus