T. H. White and Socrates

Traditionally, when a student asks me "Why?" in a metaphysical sense, I respond with the old trusty and pithy Socrates quote:

"The unexamined life is not worth living..."

Socrates

However, I just ran across someone quoting Merlin in T.H. White's classic The Once and Future King which spells it out a bit more:

"The best thing for being sad is to learn something.  That's the only thing that never fails.  You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honor trampled in the sewers of baser minds. 

There is only one thing for it then - to learn.  Learn why the world wags and what wags it.  That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust , never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you."

White

I should have known it - Merlin was a physicist!