It was the coldest winter ever. Many animals died because of the cold. The porcupines, realizing the situation, decided to group together to keep warm. This way they covered and protected themselves; but the quills of each one wounded their closest companions. After awhile, they decided to distance themselves one from the other and they began to die, alone and frozen. So they had to make a choice: either accept the quills of their companions or disappear from the Earth. Wisely, they decided to go back to being together. They learned to live with the little wounds caused by the close relationship with their companions in order to receive the warmth that came from the others. This way they were able to survive.
Moral of the story: The best relationship is not the one that brings together perfect people, but when each individual learns to live with the imperfections of others and can admire the other person's good qualities.
The parable is borrowed from Schopenhauer. His moral is (as perhaps you know) a bit different. The parable for him represents the relationship between man and man, and that ultimately isolation is to be desired by those of high moral and intellectual faculties, above excessive socialization- "a man with warmth in himself prefers to be outside". We develop social manors so as not to cause conflict, and to get along as well as can be with those around us, but the manors are created more for this reason, than the want of those relationships. It seems impossible to avoid all social contact, and that love, compassion and tolerance are the keys to leading a happy life with those in society. He also believes that when around others we have to sacrifice a part of our own personality to build friendships. We have to mask our privations and quarks, which leads to a level of phoniness. We can only be ourselves when we are alone or with very close friends. This is why he suggests that having very small groups of friends is desired over that of a socialite, because the socialite wears the mask more readily, and consistently, and is therefore less likely to express their true nature.
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