Envy, propelled by fear, can be even more toxic than anger, because it involves the thought that other people enjoy the good things of life which the envier can't hope to attain through hard work and emulation.
Martha NussbaumRead
Courses in the humanities, in particular, often seem impractical, but they are vital, because they stretch your imagination and challenge your mind to become more responsive, more critical, bigger.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Humanities courses may seem impractical, but they cultivate critical thinking and imagination.
Martha Nussbaum emphasizes the importance of humanities education, arguing that while it may appear less practical than other fields, it plays a crucial role in developing our capacity for imagination and critical thought. These skills are essential for fostering responsiveness and a broader perspective in our understanding of the world.
Themes
HumanitiesEducationImaginationCritical ThinkingMindResponsive
In practice
Example use cases
During my speech at the graduation ceremony, I quoted Martha Nussbaum to emphasize the value of a well-rounded education.
More from Martha Nussbaum
All quotes βThis is true across every single society; we project grossness onto a racial or gender subgroup or caste. A big part of social subordination and discrimination is to ascribe hyper-animality to other groups and use that as an excuse for subordinating them further.
Martha NussbaumRead
Often, we feel helpless in lots of situations in our lives. The way anger gets a grip on us is it seems to be a way to extricate ourselves from helplessness.
Martha NussbaumRead
I find so often, you know, just on a very mundane level; you've got a meeting and your child's acting in a school play. You can't do both things. And it's not simply that you can't do both, but whatever you do, you're going to be neglecting something that's really important.
Martha NussbaumRead
Look at the great tradition of Western political philosophy. Those people were all immersed in revolutionary movements. Most weren't career academics - often, they were too radical to be accepted in the academy. Rousseau's books were banned. Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill couldn't hold academic positions because they were atheists.
Martha NussbaumRead
There is no reason why an American scholar cannot by himself or herself develop an adequate understanding of another culture. And I don't find any reason to suppose that the birth within a culture automatically confers understanding.
Martha NussbaumRead
Similar quotes
You perceive now, my friends, what your general or abstract duty is as teachers. Although you have to generate in your pupils a large stock of ideas, any one of which may be inhibitory, yet you must also see to it that no habitual hesitancy or paralysis of the will ensues, and that the pupil still retains his power of vigorous action.
William JamesRead
People who earn the label "creative" are really just people who_x000D_ _x000D_ come up with more combinations of ideas, find interesting ones faster,_x000D_ _x000D_ and are willing to try them out. The problem is that most schools_x000D_ _x000D_ and organizations train us out of those habits.
Guy KawasakiRead
I know because I read...Your mind is not a cage. It's a garden. And it requires cultivating.
Libba BrayRead
Feeling gratitude isn't born in us-it's something we are taught, and in turn, we teach our children.
Joyce BrothersRead
A nation that does not read much does not know much. And a nation that does not know much is more likely to make poor choices in the home, the marketplace, the jury box, and the voting booth. And those decisions ultimately affect the entire nation...the literate and illiterate.
Jim TreleaseRead
I was taught that if you're going to study something, you must understand it deeply and be familiar with primary sources. But if you write a history of the whole world, you can't do this. That's the trade-off.
Yuval Noah HarariRead