The strange power of art is sometimes it can show that what people have in common is more urgent than what differentiates them. It seems to me it's something that theatre can do, but it's rare; it's very rare.
John BergerRead
Every authentic poem contributes to the labor of poetry... to bring together what life has separated or violence has torn apart... Poetry can repair no loss, but it defies the space which separates. And it does this by its continual labor of reassembling what has been scattered.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Poetry has the power to unify and heal by reassembling disjointed experiences of life.
In this quote, John Berger emphasizes the role of poetry as a force that seeks to bring together the fragments of human experiences that have been separated by life's challenges or violence. Although poetry cannot physically repair loss, it can challenge the divisions created by such loss, tirelessly working to unify and make sense of the scattered pieces of existence through its creative expression.
Themes
PoetryArtUnityLifeExperience
In practice
Example use cases
This quote would be a powerful addition to a speech encouraging creativity in times of turmoil.
More from John Berger
All quotes →Unlike any other visual image, a photograph is not a rendering, an imitation or an interpretation of its subject, but actually a trace of it. No painting or drawing, however naturalist, belongs to its subject in the way that a photograph does.
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We never look at just one thing; we are always looking at the relation between things and ourselves.
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The camera relieves us of the burden of memory. It surveys us like God, and it surveys for us. Yet no other god has been so cynical, for the camera records in order to forget.
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Propaganda requires a permanent network of communication so that it can systematically stifle reflection with emotive or utopian slogans. Its pace is usually fast.
John BergerRead
Being a unique superpower undermines the military intelligence of strategy. To think strategically, one has to imagine oneself in the enemy's place. If one cannot do this, it is impossible to foresee, to take by surprise, to outflank. Misinterpreting an enemy can lead to defeat. This is how empires fall.
John BergerRead
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