This self-love is the instrument of our preservation; it resembles the provision for the perpetuity of mankind: it is necessary, it is dear to us, it gives us pleasure, and we must conceal it.
VoltaireRead
despite all our desperate, eternal attempts to separate, contain and mend, categories always leak.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the futility of trying to impose rigid categories on complex realities.
Trinh T. Minh-Ha's quote captures the essence of how our attempts to classify and separate experiences or ideas often fail, as they are inherently fluid and interconnected. Despite our best efforts to create boundaries and definitions, the complexities of life ensure that these categories cannot hold, as they leak into one another, revealing the interconnectedness of existence.
Themes
CategoriesInterconnectednessComplexityFluidityClassification
In practice
Example use cases
In a philosophical discussion about identity and classification.
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