Secrecy involves a tension which, at the moment of revelation, finds its release.
Georg SimmelRead
For the division of labor demands from the individual an ever more one-sided accomplishment, and the greatest advance in a one-sided pursuit only too frequently means dearth to the personality of the individual.
Interpretation
The specialization in labor can lead to a lack of personal development and a diminished sense of self.
Georg Simmel's quote reflects the idea that as individuals focus intensely on a specific task or specialization in their work, they may sacrifice broader personal growth and well-rounded experiences. This one-sided advancement in their professional abilities can result in a narrow perspective on life and a loss of the richness that comes from diverse experiences and skills, ultimately impoverishing their personality and identity.
In practice
In a discussion about the importance of maintaining balance in life while pursuing a career.
Secrecy involves a tension which, at the moment of revelation, finds its release.
Secrecy is thus, so to speak, a transition stadium between being and not-being.
Music and love are the only accomplishments of humanity which do not, in an absolute sense, have to be called attempts with unsuitable means.
Discretion is nothing other than the sense of justice with respect to the sphere of the intimate contents of life.
In the immediate as well as the symbolic sense, in the physical as well as the intellectual sense, we are at any moment those who separate the connected, or connect the separate.
By my existence I am nothing more than an empty place, an outline,that is reserved within being in general. Given with it, though, is the duty to fill in this empty place. That is my life.
Perhaps, after all, America never has been discovered. I myself would say that it had merely been detected.
I hated labels anyway. People didn't fit in slots--prostitute, housewife, saint--like sorting the mail. We were so mutable, fluid with fear and desire, ideals and angles, changeable as water.
Life holds one great but quite commonplace mystery. Though shared by each of us and known to all, seldom rates a second thought. That mystery, which most of us take for granted and never think twice about, is time. Calendars and clocks exist to measure time, but that signifies little because we all know that an hour can seem as eternity or pass in a flash, according to how we spend it. Time is life itself, and life resides in the human heart.
My favorite: Spirituality is a domain of awareness.
He who is only just is cruel; who Upon the earth would live were all judged justly?
Freedom is not a reward or a decoration that you toast in champagne. On the contrary, it's hard graft and a long-distance run, all alone, very exhausting. Alone in a dreary room, alone in the dock before the judges, and alone to make up your mind, before yourself and before the judgement of others. At the end of every freedom there is a sentence, which is why freedom is too heavy to bear.
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