The Wisdom of a Philosopher

I was wrestling between calling this first blog post for the month of July 'No Determinate Principle for Happiness', or 'The Wisdom of a Philosopher'. After thinking about it, I went for the latter. Here's the passage that I found myself reading and re-reading again:

"Now it is impossible for the most intelligent, and at the same time most powerful, but nevertheless finite, being to form here a determinate concept of what he really wills. Is it riches that he wants? How much anxiety, envy, and pestering might he not bring in this way on his own head! Is it knowledge and insight? This might perhaps merely give him an eye so sharp that it would make evils at present hidden from him yet unavoidable seem all the more frightful, or would add a load of still further needs to the desires which already give him trouble enough. Is it long life? Who will guarantee that it would not be a long misery? Is it at least health? How often has infirmity of body kept a man from excesses into which perfect health would have let him fall!--and so on. In short, he has no principle by which he is able to decide with complete certainty what will make him truly happy, since for this he would require ominiscience."

Immanuel Kant, in 'Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals', 418, 47.