Ifound myself filled with semi-mystical feelings about beauty . . and with a desire almost as profound as that of the buddha to find some philosophy which should make human life endurable.

These are the words said by Bertrand Russell in February 1901 at the age of 29 after witnessing the angina attack of the wife of British mathematician Alfred Whitehead with whom he co-authored the book "Principia Matematica". Russell calls this some sort of mystical illumination. He finishes his quote with these lines: "At the end of those five minutes, I had become a completely different person."