Health, above all, is so much more important than all external goods that, in truth, a healthy beggar is happier than a sick king. A calm and serene temperament, based on perfect health and a happy organization, a lucid, lively, penetrating and right-thinking reason, a tempered and gentle will that produces a good conscience, these are advantages that no wealth, no rank can replace.

—Arthur Schopenhauer, ‘Aphorisms on the Wisdom of Life’

In the Presence of Schopenhauer
Michel Houellebecq