Vanity Of Worldly Conversations

Miguel de Unamuno, The Private World: Selections from the Diario Íntimo And Selected Letters 1890-1936, tr. Anthony Kerrigan and others (Princeton University Press, 1984), Notebook 1, pp. 13-14:

For years now what has most of my talk added up to? No more than gossip. I have spent my days judging others and accusing almost everyone else of foolishness. I was at the center of my universe—and thus, my fear of death. I came to believe that the world would come to an end at my death.

Often I have observed that the sad thing about all worldly conversations is that they are not dialogues at all, but intermingled monologues. Those who talk remain strangers to one another, each one following his own line of thought. No one listens with benevolent attention. Each one is impatient to speak his piece, which always seems more important than anyone else’s. Almost never is there any mingling of feelings, any unity of intent, any communion of spirit, in what is said. The frequency of interruption in any worldly conversation is worth noting as a symptom of a very painful disease.