Surrealism will usher you into death, which is a secret society. It will glove your hand, burying therein the profound M with which the word Memory begins.
Andre BretonRead
I could spend my whole life prying loose the secrets of the insane. These people are honest to a fault, and their naivety has no peer but my own.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects a deep fascination with understanding the minds of those deemed insane, highlighting their unique honesty and innocence.
Andre Breton expresses a profound interest in uncovering the complexities of the human mind, particularly in those whom society labels as insane. He perceives these individuals as possessing a rare honesty and sincerity, contrasting their naivety with his own experiences, suggesting that through understanding them, one might also grasp deeper truths about existence and the human condition.
Themes
InsanityHonestyNaivetyHuman NatureUnderstanding
In practice
Example use cases
During a discussion on mental health, I might use this quote to emphasize the value of understanding different perspectives.
More from Andre Breton
All quotes βThe mind, placed before any kind of difficulty, can find an ideal outlet in the absurd. Accommodation to the absurd readmits adults to the mysterious realm inhabited by children.
Andre BretonRead
Beauty is like a train that ceaselessly roars out of the Gare de Lyon and which I know will never leave, which has not left. It consists of jolts and shocks, many of which do not have much importance, but which we know are destined to produce one Shock, which does...The human heart, beautiful as a seismograph...Beauty will be CONVULSIVE or will not be at all.
Andre BretonRead
I maintain that anyone who still refuses to see, for instance, a horse galloping on a tomato, must be an idiot. A tomato is also a child's balloon - Surrealism, again, having suppressed the word "like."
Andre BretonRead
There is no use being alive if one must work. The event from which each of us is entitled to expect the revelation of his own lifeβs meaning - that event which I may not yet have found, but on whose path I seek myself - is not earned by work.
Andre BretonRead
Let us not mince words: the marvelous is always beautiful, anything marvelous is beautiful, in fact only the marvelous is beautiful.
Andre BretonRead
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