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The Zürau Aphorisms (1917 - 1918)
“A First Sign of the Beginning of Understanding is the Wish to Die.”
Last update June 3, 2021.
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Franz Kafka 266
author 1883–1924Related quotes
Bertrand Russell
(1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist
1930s, Mortals and Others (1931-35)
The Idiot (1868–9)
Context: Nor is there any embarrassment in the fact that we're ridiculous, isn't it true? For it's actually so, we are ridiculous, light-minded, with bad habits, we're bored, we don't know how to look, how to understand, we're all like that, all, you, and I, and they! Now, you're not offended when I tell you to your face that you're ridiculous? And if so, aren't you material? You know, in my opinion it's sometimes even good to be ridiculous, if not better: we can the sooner forgive each other, the sooner humble ourselves; we can't understand everything at once, we cant start right out with perfection! To achieve perfection, one must first begin by not understanding many things! And if we understand too quickly, we may not understand well. This I tell you, you, who have already been able to understand... and not understand … so much. I'm not afraid for you now;
Aurelius Augustinus
(354–430) early Christian theologian and philosopher
Sermon 19:2 on the New Testament http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/160319.htm
Sermons
Context: You wish to be great, begin from the least. You are thinking to construct some mighty fabric in height; first think of the foundation of humility. And how great soever a mass of building one may wish and design to place above it, the greater the building is to be, the deeper does he dig his foundation.
Steven Wright
(1955) American actor and author
When the Leaves Blow Away (2006), I Still Have a Pony (2007)
“Soon to die
yet showing no sign
the cicada's voice”
Bashō Matsuo
(1644–1694) Japanese poet
やがてしぬ
けしきはみえず
蝉の声
https://haikutopics.blogspot.ca/2006/07/voice-of-animal-xx-no-koe.html https://www.tofugu.com/japan/japanese-poetry-crash-course/
Individual poems
“He who does not wish to die cannot have wished to live.”
Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter XXX: On conquering the conqueror
“Are these signs of hope, or do we deceive ourselves by wishing them to be?”
Source: The Chronicles of Prydain (1964–1968), Book V : The High King (1968), Chapter 15 (Taran)
G. I. Gurdjieff
(1866–1949) influential spiritual teacher, Armenian philosopher, composer and writer
Aphorisms
