Frank Crane (1861–1928) American Presbyterian minister
Four Minute Essays Vol. 5 (1919), The Human Heart
“What are mortals for?—Their business is to know. Know? And what is to know?—It is assuredly: not to be what one is.—And so here are humans raving and thinking, introducing into nature the principle of unlimited error, and myriads of marvels!”
Eryximachus, p. 52
L'Âme et la danse (1921)
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Paul Valéry89
French poet, essayist, and philosopher 1871–1945Related quotes
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity
1930s, Mein Weltbild (My World-view) (1931)
Context: How strange is the lot of us mortals! Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose he knows not, though he sometimes thinks he senses it. But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people — first of all for those upon whose smiles and well-being our own happiness is wholly dependent, and then for the many, unknown to us, to whose destinies we are bound by the ties of sympathy. A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving....
“And here I was thinking you were a bit slow, what with so much asking and not knowing anything.”
Carlos Ruiz Zafón book The Shadow of the Wind
Source: The Shadow of the Wind
“It is awfully important to know what is and what is not your business.”
Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) American art collector and experimental writer of novels, poetry and plays
"What Is English Literature?" (1935)
“Now I know what a ghost is. Unfinished business, that's what.”
Salman Rushdie book The Satanic Verses
Source: The Satanic Verses
Samuel Butler (1835–1902) novelist
The Roman Empire
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part XIII - Unprofessional Sermons
“So far as consciousness goes, one does one's thinking before one knows what he is to think about.”
Edwin Boring (1886–1968) American psychologist
Source: A History of Experimental Psychology, 1929, p. 397: Cited in: Jay M. Jackson (2013) Social Psychology, Past and Present: An Integrative Orientation, p. 28
“My business is to paint what I see, not what I know is there.”
J.M.W. Turner (1775–1851) British Romantic landscape painter, water-colourist, and printmaker
Turner, quoted in: Donald B. MacCulloch (1927) The Wondrous Isle of Staffa, p. 160
Alternative quote:
My job is to paint what I see, not what I know
As quoted in: George Seferis (1999) A Poet's Journal: Days of 1945-1951. p. 105
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