A judgment about life has no meaning except the truth of the one who speaks last, and the mind is at ease only at the moment when everyone is shouting at once and no one can hear a thing.
Georges BatailleRead
The anguish of the neurotic individual is the same as that of the saint. The neurotic, the saint are engaged in the same battle. Their blood flows from similar wounds. But the first one gasps and the other one gives.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Both neurotics and saints experience similar inner struggles, but their responses are different.
This quote by Georges Bataille suggests that individuals who suffer psychologically (neurotics) and those who are spiritually evolved (saints) share a common human experience of pain and struggle. However, while the neurotic may react to this anguish with despair and withdrawal, the saint transforms their suffering into acts of giving and compassion. The quote highlights the paradox of the human condition and the different ways individuals can respond to their suffering.
Themes
AnguishNeuroticSaintBattleSuffering
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about mental health and spirituality during a seminar.
More from Georges Bataille
All quotes →I believe that truth has only one face: that of a violent contradiction.
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What does physical eroticism signify if not a violation of the very being of its practitioners? – A violation bordering on death, bordering on murder?
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It is clear that the world is purely parodic, that each thing seen is the parody of another, or is the same thing in a deceptive form.
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I think that knowledge enslaves us, that at the base of all knowledge there is a servility, the acceptation of a way of life wherein each moment has meaning only in relation to another or others that will follow it.
Georges BatailleRead
Eroticism is assenting to life even in death.
Georges BatailleRead
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