It is true that Borges once said that one must choose one’s enemies carefully, as one ends up resembling them; yet my beloved grandfather Iqbal ibn Haidar paraphrased Borges’s words a couple of decades before they were uttered:
“History shows us that, in general, humans inevitably become identical to that which they combat once this enemy has been defeated.
“Domestic life, too, agrees on occasion.”
He also pondered:
“Since the dawn of humanity, man has conquered.
“Yet, one shall become truly human by remembering that the only thing to really be found is the knowledge that will take you towards yourself, thus allowing you at the same time to be conquered by such a possibility.
“A type of knowledge that, as far as I am aware of, is only possessed by just a few.”