Who included me among the ranks of the human race?
Interpretation
The quote questions the definition of humanity and one's place within it.
In this quote, Joseph Brodsky reflects on the existential nature of identity and belonging. It poses a rhetorical question that challenges societal norms and the arbitrary criteria often used to define what it means to be part of the human race, suggesting that such classifications may overlook deeper individual truths. The quote encourages introspection about one's existence and the value of human experiences beyond superficial labels.
In practice
This quote can be used in a philosophical debate on identity crises.
Basically, it's hard for me to assess myself, a hardship not only prompted by the immodesty of the enterprise, but because one is not capable of assessing himself, let alone his work. However, if I were to summarize, my main interest is the nature of time. That's what interests me most of all. What time can do to a man.
One always pulls the trigger out of self-interest and quotes history to avoid responsibility or pangs of conscience.
On the whole, infinity is a fairly palpable aspect of this business of publishing, if only because it extends a dead author's existence beyond the limits he envisioned, or provides a living author with a future he cannot measure. In other words, this business deals with the future which we all prefer to regard as unending.
The invention of ethical and political doctrines, which blossomed into our own social sciences, is a product of times when things appeared manageable. The same goes for the criticism of those doctrines, though as a voice from the past, this criticism proved prophetic.
Try not to pay attention to those who will try to make life miserable for you. There will be a lot of those - in the official capacity as well as the self-appointed.
To put it in plain language, Russia is that country where the name of a writer appears not on the cover of his book, but on the door of his prison cell.
Respect for life and for the dignity of the human person also extends to the rest of creation, which is called to join man in praising God.
My teacher said once that every man faces seven enemies in his lifetime. Sickness, hunger, betrayal, envy, greed, old age, and then death.
I worry about global anti-Semitism - not just as a bad idea that originates from bad people, but also as something that arises as a challenge to global order.
Hordes of young girls never copied my hairdos or the way I talk or the way I dress. I have, therefore, never had to go through the stress of perpetuating an image that's often the equivalent of one particular song that forever freezes a precise moment of one's youth.
There is no partial sensitivity; either it is the state of one's whole being, total consciousness or it is not there at all
Caesar's wife must be above suspicion.
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