Achieving life is not the equivalent of avoiding death. Joy is not “the absence
of pain,” intelligence is not “the absence of stupidity,” light is not “the
absence of darkness,” an entity is not “the absence of a nonentity.” Building
is not done by abstaining from demolition; centuries of sitting and waiting in
such abstinence will not raise one single girder for you to abstain from
demolishing. . . . Existence is not a negation of negatives.