The capital phenomenon, the most catastrophic disaster, is uninterrupted sleeplessness, that nothingness without release.
Emil CioranRead
If the awareness of our limitations begins to limit or to dim our value consciousness as well—as happens, for instance, in old age with regard to the values of youth—then we have already started the movement of devaluation which will end with the defamation of the world and all its values. Only a timely act of resignation can deliver us from this tendency toward self-delusion.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Awareness of our limitations can lead to a diminished sense of self-worth and the values we attribute to life, particularly as we age.
Max Scheler suggests that recognizing our limitations can sometimes result in a decline in our value consciousness, particularly when it comes to the vibrancy and worth associated with youth. This experience of devaluation can spiral into a broader condemnation of the values of the world. To counteract this negative trend, he emphasizes the importance of a timely act of resignation, a conscious decision to accept our circumstances without falling into the traps of self-deception.
Themes
LimitationsSelf-WorthValuesAgeResignationSelf-Delusion
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about embracing change as we age.
Similar quotes
When a person’s tongue is extensively wrong, it is absurd, no less than unscriptural, to say that their heart is right.
J. C. RyleRead
I came to terms with not fitting in a long time ago. I never really fitted in. I don't want to fit in. And now people are buying into that.
Alexander McqueenRead
For all cats have this particularity, each and every one, from the meanest alley sneaker to the proudest, whitest she that ever graced a pontiff's pillow — we have our smiles, as it were, painted on. Those small, cool, quite Mona Lisa smiles that smile we must, no matter whether it's been fun or it's been not. So all cats have a politician's air; we smile and smile and so they think we're villains
Angela CarterRead
Be what you would seem to be - or, if you'd like it put more simply - never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise.
Lewis CarrollRead
But the perception of life as an organic unity is a slow achievement, and depends for its growth on a people's entry into the main current of world-events.
Muhammad IqbalRead