The hunter for aphorisms on human nature has to fish in muddy water, and he is even condemned to find much of his own mind.
We say that a girl with her doll anticipates the mother. It is more true, perhaps, that most mothers are still but children with playthings.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the relationship between motherhood and childhood, suggesting that even mothers hold onto childlike qualities.
F. H. Bradley's quote explores the idea that the maternal instinct is intertwined with childhood innocence and playfulness. It suggests that while girls anticipate becoming mothers by caring for their dolls, it may be truer that mothers retain childlike qualities themselves, using their children and parenting as a means of engaging with their own inner child. This perspective invites us to consider the complexities of adulthood and the ways in which we carry forward the essence of our youth.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the psychological aspects of motherhood, this quote highlights the essence of nurturing behaviors.
More from F. H. Bradley
All quotes βWhere everything is bad it must be good to know the worst.
The secret of happiness is to admire without desiring. And that is not happiness.
True penitence condemns to silence. What a man is ready to recall he would be willing to repeat.
Our live experiences, fixed in aphorisms, stiffen into cold epigrams. Our heart's blood, as we write it, turns to mere dull ink.
Metaphysics is the finding of bad reasons for what we believe on instinct.
Similar quotes
Religion is defined as social systems whose participants avow a supernatural agent or agents whose approval is to be sought.
Men have always shown a dim knowledge of their better potentialities by paying homage to those purest leaders who taught the simplest and most inclusive rules for an undivided mankind.
I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice. Not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother's death, but because he is the reason I believe in God. I am a Christian because of Owen Meany.
Our age is essentially one of understanding and reflection, without passion, momentarily bursting into enthusiasm and shrewdly relapsing into repose.
We want to be in control of our lives. Whether we are jungle fighters, craftsmen, company men, gamesmen, we want to be in control. And when the government erodes that control, we are not comfortable.
They both listened silently to the water, which to them was not just water, but the voice of life, the voice of Being, the voice of perpetual Becoming.