A Chinaman of the T'ang Dynasty—and, by which definition, a philosopher—dreamed he was a butterfly, and from that moment he was never quite sure that he was not a butterfly dreaming it was a Chinese philosopher. Envy him; in his two-fold security.
Interpretation
This quote explores the nature of reality and identity through the dream of a philosopher.
In this quote, Tom Stoppard presents a thought-provoking scenario where a philosopher dreams he is a butterfly, leading to an existential contemplation about the nature of self and reality. This duality raises questions about perception, consciousness, and the distinction between dreams and waking life, suggesting that one’s truths can be fluid and subject to interpretation.
In practice
During a philosophy class discussion about the nature of reality.
Love is - OK, it's 20 things, but it isn't 19. And I think that love reaches for something which is very, very deep in us and is very easily obscured, and is also very easily denied, which is the instinct towards the other person, other than toward the self.
A movie camera is like having someone you have a crush on watching you from afar - you pretend it's not there.
I once did a radio program with a famous materialist, that is to say a scientist who believed that absolutely everything was physical and that all emotions were reductive to little electrical impulses in your neurons. And I found that I didn't believe that. But what the emotions really are, I don't have an alternative theory.
One of the reasons why there are so many versions of Chekhov is that translations date in a way that the original doesn't; translations seem to be of their time.
Chekhov directors and Chekhov actors love working on his plays because there seems to be no end to what you can find out about the micro-narrative when you're investigating a text.
I think theater ought to be theatrical ... you know, shuffling the pack in different ways so that it's -- there's always some kind of ambush involved in the experience. You're being ambushed by an unexpected word, or by an elephant falling out of the cupboard, whatever it is.
It is insane that two men, sitting on opposite sides of the world, should be able to decide to bring an end to civilization.
What I quickly discovered is that our so-called new South Africa has as much material for a story-teller as the old one. The landscape hasn't really changed. Who is in power now is different to who was in power then, but the squatter camps grow like cancer, the rich get richer, the poor get poorer.
There are only two kinds of freedom in the world; the freedom of the rich and powerful, and the freedom of the artist and the monk who renounces possessions.
Beware of thinkers whose minds function only when they are fueled by a quotation.
Jesus took His flesh from the flesh of Mary
The faces of most American women over thirty are relief maps of petulant and bewildered unhappiness.
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