“In the country of the blind, who are not as unobservant as they look, the one-eyed is not king, he is spectator.”

Clifford Geertz, Local Knowledge: Further Essays in Interpretive Anthropology (1983) Basic Books, 2000, p. 58.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "In the country of the blind, who are not as unobservant as they look, the one-eyed is not king, he is spectator." by Clifford Geertz?
Clifford Geertz photo
Clifford Geertz 16
American anthropologist 1926–2006

Related quotes

Desiderius Erasmus photo

“In the country of the blind the one-eyed man is king.”
In regione caecorum rex est luscus.

Adagia (first published 1500, with numerous expanded editions through 1536), III, IV, 96
Also in the same passage of the Adagia is a variant: Inter caecos regnat strabus (Among the blind, the squinter rules).

John Kenneth Galbraith photo

“Who is king in the world of the blind when there isn't even a one eyed man?”

John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006) American economist and diplomat

Source: The Age of Uncertainty (1977), Chapter 6, p. 180

“In the valley of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.”

Source: Gem of the Ocean

Guy De Maupassant photo
Niccolo Machiavelli photo

“In the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king.”

Niccolo Machiavelli (1469–1527) Italian politician, Writer and Author

In terra di ciechi chi vi ha un occhio è signore.
Act III, scene ix
The Mandrake (1524)

“In the country of the blind the one-eyed man is lucky to escape with his life.”

Celia Green (1935) British philosopher

The Decline and Fall of Science (1976)

Colin Wilson photo

“In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. But his kingship is kingship over nothing. It brings no powers and privileges, only loss of faith and exhaustion of the power to act. Its world is a world without values.”

Source: The Outsider (1956), Chapter one, The Country of the Blind, referencing a quote by Desiderius Erasmus.
Context: He alone is aware of the truth, and if all men were aware of it, there would be an end of life. In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. But his kingship is kingship over nothing. It brings no powers and privileges, only loss of faith and exhaustion of the power to act. Its world is a world without values.

Raghuram G. Rajan photo

“I think we have still to get to a place where we feel satisfied. We have this saying - "In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king."”

Raghuram G. Rajan (1963) Indian economist

We are a little bit that way.
On India's performance amid the 2015 world economy slow down, as quoted in " India 'one-eyed' king in land of blind, says Rajan http://www.business-standard.com/article/finance/india-one-eyed-king-in-land-of-blind-says-rajan-116041600663_1.html", Business Standard (16 April 2016)

Victor Hugo photo

Related topics