There's the constant concern with what happens to you when you die. Every society thinks about that and makes things to deal with that.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on how societies universally contemplate death and create ways to address the fear and uncertainty surrounding it.
Neil Macgregor's quote emphasizes the universal human concern regarding death and the afterlife. It suggests that all societies, throughout history, have grappled with the implications of mortality, leading them to develop rituals, beliefs, and practices designed to manage the fear and mystery associated with dying. This concern not only reflects our mortality but also speaks to the cultural significance of how we honor and remember the dead.
In practice
During a memorial service, one might quote this to acknowledge the shared human experience of dealing with death.
Google the name Prometheus, and see how often it has been given to innovations in many different fields, notably science, medicine and space exploration. The fire he stole can be seen, too, as the spark generating all artistic creativity.
In the world of the Middle East at the moment, the debates are shrill. But ... the wisest voice of all of them may well be the voice of this mute thing, the Cyrus cylinder.
The deciphering of ancient scripts changed forever the way Europeans were able to imagine the story of humanity, destroying centuries of received authority about the past with repercussions as important for our understanding of time and history as the geological studies of the same period.
The distinction between a gallery and a museum is enormous. The gallery is about looking at a thing of beauty; the purpose of the activity is an aesthetic response. The museum is actually about the object that lets you get into somebody else's life.
When I think of death, I only regret that I will not be able to see this beautiful country anymore unless the Indians are right and my spirit will walk here after I'm gone.
Men go forth to wonder at the height of mountains, the huge waves of the sea, the broad flow of the ocean, the course of the stars-and forget to wonder at themselves. Beware of despairing about yourself: you are commanded to put your trust in God, and not in yourself.
I can't even enjoy a blade of grass unless I know there's a subway handy, or a record store or some other sign that people do not totally regret life. It's more important to confirm the least sincere. The clouds get enough attention as it is.
I love my country very dearly, and I greatly resent the implication that some of the places I have sung and some of the people that I have known, and some of my opinions, whether they are religious or philosophical, or I might be a vegetarian, make me any less of an American.
A man who could not see the end of his"provisional existence" was not able to aim at an ultimate goal in life.
Yoga is a generic name for any discipline by which one attempts to pass out of the limits of one's ordinary mental consciousness into a greater spiritual consciousness.
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