“Man is an animal suspended in webs of significance he himself has spun.”
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Clifford Geertz 16
American anthropologist 1926–2006Related quotes

F 49
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook F (1776-1779)

“Man is the animal that draws lines which he himself then stumbles over.”
As quoted in Scandinavian Review (2003), by the American-Scandinavian Foundation, p. 18
Context: Man is the animal that draws lines which he himself then stumbles over. In the whole pattern of civilization there have been two tendencies, one toward straight lines and rectangular patterns and one toward circular lines. There are reasons, mechanical and psychological, for both tendencies. Things made with straight lines fit well together and save space. And we can move easily — physically or mentally — around things made with round lines. But we are in a straitjacket, having to accept one or the other, when often some intermediate form would be better.

“Man is a make-believe animal — he is never so truly himself as when he is acting a part.”
Notes of a Journey through France and Italy (1824), ch. XVI

Third Thesis
Idea for a Universal History from a Cosmopolitan Point of View (1784)

“Man has injured every animal he has touched.”
11 February 1869, page 23
John of the Mountains, 1938