„We can only know what we can truly imagine. Finally what we see comes from ourselves.“
— Marge Piercy, Woman on the Edge of Time
Source: Woman on the Edge of Time
„Only what is human can truly be foreign.“
"Psalm"
Poems New and Collected (1998), A Large Number (1976)
Context: And how can we talk of order overall
when the very placement of the stars
leaves us doubting just what shines for whom?Not to speak of the fog's reprehensible drifting!
And dust blowing all over the steppes
as if they hadn't been partitioned!
And the voices coasting on obliging airwaves,
that conspiratorial squeaking, those indecipherable mutters!
Only what is human can truly be foreign.
Wisława Szymborska92
Polish writer 1923 - 2012Related quotes
„Only those who are truly aware of their sin can truly cherish grace.“
— C.J. Mahaney American clergyman 1953
Source: The Cross Centered Life: Keeping the Gospel The Main Thing
„Only firm people can be truly soft.“
— François de La Rochefoucauld, book Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims
Il n'y a que les personnes qui ont de la fermeté qui puissent avoir une véritable douceur.
Variant translation: It is only those who are firm who can be genuinely kind.
Maxim 479.
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665–1678)
„The secret is that only that which can destroy itself is truly alive.“
— C.G. Jung Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology 1875 - 1961
Psychology and Alchemy (1944)
Source: Dreams
— Jürgen Habermas, book Knowledge and Human Interests
Source: Knowledge and Human Interests, 1971, p. 301
„There is no foreign land; it is the traveller only that is foreign“
— Robert Louis Stevenson, book The Silverado Squatters
The Silverado Squatters.
Context: There is no foreign land; it is the traveller only that is foreign, and now and again, by a flash of recollection, lights up the contrasts of the ear.
— Matthew Arnold English poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools 1822 - 1888
"Irish Essays. Ecce, Convertimur ad Gentes" (1882)
— Patrick Süskind German writer and screenwriter 1949
Source: Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
„Only by being prepared for your death can you ever truly live.“
— Christopher Moore, book A Dirty Job
Source: A Dirty Job
„The only laws a man can truly respect are the ones he makes for himself“
— William Powell (author), book The Anarchist Cookbook
"Postscript", p. 153.
The Anarchist Cookbook (1971)
Context: If people depend on the state to make laws, to prevent themselves from doing what they really want to do, then I say these people are nuts. I mean to say, if I really want to do something, I don't particularly care if it's legal, illegal, moral, immoral, or amoral. I want to do it, so I do it. The only laws a man can truly respect are the ones he makes for himself.
— V.S. Ramachandran Neuroscientist 1951
"VS Ramachandran: The Sherlock Holmes Of Neuroscience," (Swarajaya, April 4, 2017) https://swarajyamag.com/magazine/any-ape-can-reach-for-a-banana-but-only-a-human-can-reach-for-the-stars
„Human entirety can only be what it is when giving up the addiction to others’ ends.“
— Georges Bataille French intellectual and literary figure 1897 - 1962
Source: On Nietzsche (1945), p. xxxiv, note