What is wrong with us human beings, and has been wrong since time immemorial, is that without ever stating it in so many words, we believe that we have entered the realm of immortality. We behave as if we are never going to die – an infantile arrogance.

But even more injurious than this sense of immortality is what comes with it : the sense that we can engulf this inconceivable universe with our minds.

Carlos Castaneda, The Active Side of Infinity