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.
The final war will be between Pavlov's dog and Schoedinger's Cat.
Our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet.
There's nothing harder than defining oneself.
Chances are, if you are following the crowd, you're following the wrong path.
The soul is part of the body. The mind is part of the body. When folks do physical violence to black people, to black bodies in this country, the soul as we construe it is damaged, too - the mind is damaged, too.
I was raised a black child in the South, where you're indoctrinated into a religion that an oppressor gave you.
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