Mozart's conviction here rests on something most people miss: he wasn't merely praising education or conversation in the abstract, but insisting these are *why we exist*—not byproducts of living, but its actual purpose. The word "industriously" is particularly telling; he's not romanticizing idle philosophy but demanding sustained, disciplined engagement. When you watch a good editing team debate a manuscript, or neighbors work through a zoning dispute with genuine listening, you're glimpsing what Mozart meant—lives justified by the friction of minds meeting. The beauty is that he places enlightenment squarely in *discussion*, not in solitary genius, which should humble anyone who thinks their own thinking is sufficient.