And suddenly, I understood; everything became extraordinarily clear and simple. Everything: life, death, the meaning of existence. And even stronger than this revelation was my surprise: how had no one on earth yet understood this thing, so extraordinarily simple? . . . I had the feeling that a message had been transmitted to me, that I should remember [it] so as to be able to communicate it to men. I woke up . . . with this idea in mind: not to forget what I had seen. A second later, I had forgotten.

—Mircea Eliade

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