Themes
you were not made to live as brutes, but to follow virtue and knowledge.
— Consider your origins · The Divine Comedy
Behind the line May contain spoilers.
Our reading
An editorial interpretation.
Human beings are not meant to live like brute animals, driven only by appetite. The speaker says their purpose is to pursue virtue and knowledge, an appeal to human dignity and higher aims. Ordinary survival and pleasure fall short of what people are for.
Context reviewed