“The form most contradictory to human life that can appear among the human species is the "self-satisfied man."”
Source: The Revolt of the Masses (1929), Chapter XI: The Self-Satisfied Age
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José Ortega Y Gasset85
Spanish liberal philosopher and essayist 1883–1955Related quotes
Henry Liddon (1829–1890) British theologian
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 209.
Roberto Mangabeira Unger (1947) Brazilian philosopher and politician
Source: Law in Modern Societyː Toward a Criticism of Social Theory (1976), p. 260
Colin Wilson (1931–2013) author
Source: The Strength To Dream (1961), p. 197
Context: No artist can develop without increasing his self-knowledge; but self-knowledge supposes a certain preoccupation with the meaning of human life and the destiny of man. A definite set of beliefs — Methodist Christianity, for example — may only be a hindrance to development; but it is not more so than Beckett's refusal to think at all. Shaw says somewhere that all intelligent men must be preoccupied with either religion, politics, or sex. (He seems to attribute T. E. Lawrence's tragedy to his refusal to come to grips with any of them.) It is hard to see how an artist could hope to achieve any degree of self-knowledge without being deeply concerned with at least one of the three.
“Perfectibility is one of the most unequivocal characteristics of the human species.”
William Godwin (1756–1836) English journalist, political philosopher and novelist
Vol. 1, bk. 1, ch. 2
Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793)
Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908–1961) French phenomenological philosopher
Signs, trans. R. McCleary (Evanston: 1964), p. 203
Herbert Read (1893–1968) English anarchist, poet, and critic of literature and art
The Meaning of Art, London : Faber & Faber, 1931
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