Quoting Lev Shestov and his Job’s Balances, the inquietude is the origin and the end of philosophy, and therefore of life. Being unquiet is the key to beauty simply because we do not take anything for granted. Everything appears to us in its marvel. Art is born from inquietude. Creativity comes from inquietude, and also many of our most original ideas are born from inquietude. If everything were always quiet, then why we should invent something new?
If you always follow the same road, you are likely to lose the destination. To lose the opportunity to find a new and unexpected destination. Inquietude is what allows us to keep on asking ourselves questions about what surrounds us. And, as Bertrand Russell put it, in all affairs it’s a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted. Inquietude embraces the concept of movement, dynamism and research. A continuous research for the truth that comes from the need to develop a critical sensibility.
In 1644, at the dawn of the English Civil War, the British writer John Milton, inspired by the words of Isocrates and by the freedom of the press, wrote that truth is a streaming fountain; if her waters flow not in a perpetual progression, they sicken into a muddy pool of conformity and tradition. And only if we are unquiet are we able to go beyond conformity toward a continuous search for our own truth.