Secrecy involves a tension which, at the moment of revelation, finds its release.
Georg SimmelRead
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.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the individual's role in defining their own existence and purpose.
Georg Simmel articulates the idea that existence alone is insufficient; it is the responsibility of each person to invest meaning into their lives. The 'empty place' symbolizes our potential, which must be filled with actions, choices, and experiences that give life purpose and significance. By acknowledging this duty, individuals can transform their existence from a mere outline into a fulfilling reality.
In practice
This quote can be used during a motivational speech to encourage individuals to find their purpose.
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.
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.
Things that happen every day are, frankly, what we in the news business aren't good at covering because there is no one day in which they are news.
In America, mixed-race identity tends to invite both curiosity and suspicion, largely because few have found a way to interrogate it without centering whiteness as the scale by which to evaluate blackness.
[God] is perfect not only insofar as He is absolute perfection, defining perfection in Himself and from His singular existence and total perfection, but also because He is far beyond being so. He sets a boundary to the boundless and in His total unity He rises above all limitation. He is neither contained nor comprehended by anything. He reaches out to everything and beyond everything and does so with unfailing generosity and unstinted activity.
We would be a lot safer if the Government would take its money out of science and put it into astrology and the reading of palms. I used to think that science would save us, and science certainly tried. But we can't stand any more tremendous explosions, either for or against democracy.
The failures of the press have contributed immensely to the emergence of a talk-show nation, in which public discourse is reduced to ranting and raving and posturing. We now have a mainstream press whose news agenda is increasingly influenced by this netherworld.
There are ways in, journeys to the center of life, through time; through air, matter, dream and thought. The ways are not always mapped or charted, but sometimes being lost, if there is such a thing, is the sweetest place to be. And always, in this search, a person might find that she is already there, at the center of the world. It may be a broken world, but it is glorious nonetheless.
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