To be a good human being is to have a kind of openness to the world, an ability to trust uncertain things beyond your own control, that can lead you to be shattered in very extreme circumstances for which you were not to blame.

Martha Nussbaum, drawing on Greek tragedy, in conversation with Bill Moyers. The corollary she gives is hard: closing yourself off to avoid being shattered is itself a refusal of the human project. Maria Popova frames the full piece around the line.