“Everything is in constant flux, from state to state, from good to bad and back again.... only in transmutation, perpetual motion, lies truth.”

—  Asger Jorn

Statement in 1950 on reality as motion, as quoted in Asger Jorn (2002) by Arken Museum of Modern Art
1949 - 1958, Various sources

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 "Everything is in constant flux, from state to state, from good to bad and back again.... only in transmutation, perpetu…" by Asger Jorn?
Asger Jorn photo
Asger Jorn 48
Danish artist 1914–1973

Related quotes

Terry Pratchett photo
Antisthenes photo

“States are doomed when they are unable to distinguish good men from bad.”

Antisthenes (-444–-365 BC) Greek philosopher

§ 5
From Lives and Opinions of the Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laërtius

John le Carré photo

“I remain terrified of the capacity of the media, the capacity of spin doctors, here and abroad, particularly the United States media, to perpetuate false lies, perpetuate lies.”

John le Carré (1931) British novelist and spy

John le Carré (1931-2020) on the Iraq War, Corporate Power, the Exploitation of Africa & More, Democracy Now! https://www.democracynow.org/2020/12/25/john_le_carre_1931_2020_on (25 December 2020)

Edward R. Murrow photo

“This reporter’s beliefs are in a state of flux.”

Edward R. Murrow (1908–1965) Television journalist

This I Believe (1951)
Context: This reporter’s beliefs are in a state of flux. It would be easier to enumerate the items I do not believe in, than the other way around. And yet in talking to people, in listening to them, I have come to realize that I don’t have a monopoly on the world’s problems. Others have their share, often far bigger than mine. This has helped me to see my own in truer perspective: and in learning how others have faced their problems — this has given me fresh ideas about how to tackle mine.

“Put simply, I want to teach people in this country to tell lies from the truth and to tell bad from good. … This is what our people still cannot do.”

Pavel 183 (1983–2013) Russian street artist

as reported by Vladimir Isachenkov, in "P183 Dead: Street Artist Known As 'Russian Banksy' Dies At 29 Years Old" at The Huffington Post (3 April 2013)

Lewis H. Lapham photo

“The state of perpetual emptiness is, of course, very good for business.”

Lewis H. Lapham (1935) American journalist

Source: Money And Class In America (1989), Chapter 3, The Golden Horde, p. 59

Friedrich Nietzsche photo

“State is the name of the coldest of all cold monsters. Coldly it lies; and this lie slips from its mouth: 'I, the state, am the people’.”

Thus Spoke Zarathustra; A Book for All and None, trans. Kaufmann, New York: NY, Modern Library (1995) p. 48, 1.11: “On the New Idol”

William Wordsworth photo

“Controls them and subdues, transmutes, bereaves
Of their bad influence, and their good receives.”

William Wordsworth (1770–1850) English Romantic poet

Source: Character of the Happy Warrior http://www.bartleby.com/145/ww302.html (1806), Line 17.

Margaret Thatcher photo

“We have not successfully rolled back the frontiers of the state in Britain, only to see them re-imposed at a European level with a European super-state exercising a new dominance from Brussels”

Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) British stateswoman and politician

The Bruges Speech (20 September 1988) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=107332
Third term as Prime Minister
Context: Mr. Chairman, you have invited me to speak on the subject of Britain and Europe. Perhaps I should congratulate you on your courage. If you believe some of the things said and written about my views on Europe, it must seem rather like inviting Genghis Khan to speak on the virtues of peaceful coexistence!... The European Community is one manifestation of that European identity, but it is not the only one. We must never forget that east of the Iron Curtain, peoples who once enjoyed a full share of European culture, freedom and identity have been cut off from their roots. We shall always look on Warsaw, Prague and Budapest as great European cities... To try to suppress nationhood and concentrate power at the centre of a European conglomerate would be highly damaging and would jeopardise the objectives we seek to achieve. Europe will be stronger precisely because it has France as France, Spain as Spain, Britain as Britain, each with its own customs, traditions and identity. It would be folly to try to fit them into some sort of identikit European personality... it is ironic that just when those countries such as the Soviet Union, which have tried to run everything from the centre, are learning that success depends on dispersing power and decisions away from the centre, there are some in the Community who seem to want to move in the opposite direction. We have not successfully rolled back the frontiers of the state in Britain, only to see them re-imposed at a European level with a European super-state exercising a new dominance from Brussels.

Related topics