Where misunderstanding serves others as an advantage, one is helpless to make oneself understood.
Lionel TrillingRead
There is no connection between the political ideas of our educated class and the deep places of the imagination.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Political ideas and imagination are often disconnected, especially in educated circles.
Lionel Trilling's quote suggests that the political ideologies espoused by the educated elite often lack a deep-rooted relationship with the imaginative and emotional aspects of human experience. He implies that while these individuals may engage intellectually with political thought, their ideas may not resonate with the more profound, imaginative elements of life that drive true understanding and connection among people.
Themes
PoliticsImaginationEducationIdeasIntellect
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate about the role of education in politics, this quote can be used to illustrate the gap between ideas and imaginative understanding.
More from Lionel Trilling
All quotes →Our culture peculiarly honors the act of blaming, which it takes as the sign of virtue and intellect.
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The poet may be used as a barometer, but let us not forget that he is also part of the weather.
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Every neurosis is a primitive form of legal proceeding in which the accused carries on the prosecution, imposes judgment and executes the sentence: all to the end that someone else should not perform the same process.
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Youth is a time when we find the books we give up but do not get over.
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We are at heart so profoundly anarchistic that the only form of state we can imagine living in is Utopian; and so cynical that the only Utopia we can believe in is authoritarian.
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