Quote Originally Posted by Dante Alighieri
The people who can take less harmful drugs in moderation are the ones who are letting their desires be ruled by some element of reason, making their decisions stoical, but I would argue Sagan's brilliance was in spite of his use of cannabis rather than because of it.
Yes, of course, but it didn't "hurt" him, or his mind.

Also I notice you admire Nietszche, one of the biggest opponents of Stoicism, Nietszche's ideas that people should give in to their desires of lust, revenge and want are the ideas that make human beings no better than beasts.
Nietszche didn't live what he preached. I think that he created provocative challenges, with subtle clues, in his writings with the express purpose of riling people like yourself. I believe that he associated stocim with inflexibility, which can and does happen. Whatever he did, he put his whole self into it. He was creating ways of expressing ideas, and didn't expect his work to be taken down as "truth". I know that you'll have a problem with that - but he was convinced that truth changes. I still don't understand his theory of eternal recurrence, but I don't think he completely did either. He wanted to shake things up, hopefully for the better, and I canā??t fault him for that.