The task of a writer consists of being able to make something out of an idea.
Thomas MannRead
The Freudian theory is one of the most important foundation stones for an edifice to be built by future generations, the dwelling of a freer and wiser humanity.
Interpretation
The Freudian theory serves as a crucial basis for future understanding and progress in human knowledge.
In this quote, Thomas Mann highlights the significance of Freudian theory as a fundamental building block for future intellectual developments. He envisions a future where humanity is more enlightened and liberated, suggesting that the insights gained from Freud's work will help shape a wiser society.
In practice
In a psychology seminar, I quoted this to emphasize the importance of foundational theories.
The task of a writer consists of being able to make something out of an idea.
Stupid β well, there are so many kinds of stupidity, and cleverness is one of the worst.
It is a strange fact that freedom and equality, the two basic ideas of democracy, are to some extent contradictory. Logically considered, freedom and equality are mutually exclusive, just as society and the individual are mutually exclusive.
I tell them that if they will occupy themselves with the study of mathematics they will find in it the best remedy against the lusts of the flesh.
Literature... is the union of suffering with the instinct for form.
One always has the idea of a stupid man as perfectly healthy and ordinary, and of illness as making one refined and clever and unusual.
The society in which we live is the result of our psychological state.
The generosity of the Earth allows us to feed all mankind; we know enough about ecology to keep the Earth a healthy place; there is enough room on the Earth, and there are enough materials, so that everybody can have adequate shelter; we are quite competent enough to produce sufficient supplies of necessities so that no one need live in misery.
When something is universal enough in our everyday lives, we take it for granted to the point of forgetting it exists.
I see in the rising crescendo of ethnic tensions, civilization clashes and the use of religious justification for acts of terror, a clear and present danger to humanity.
What is right is not always the same as what is legal
Accidents, try to change them - it's impossible. The accidental reveals man.
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