I turn to history not for lessons but to confront my experience with the experience of others and to win for myself a sense of responsibility for the state of the human conscience.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the importance of understanding history to gain personal responsibility and insight into human conscience.
In this quote, Zbigniew Herbert emphasizes that his exploration of history is not solely for learning lessons but rather to engage with his own experiences by comparing them to those of others. This reflective practice allows him to cultivate a deeper sense of responsibility towards the collective moral state of humanity, suggesting that understanding our past can enhance our awareness and accountability in the present.
In practice
In a lecture discussing the importance of historical context in contemporary issues.
Inanimate objects are always correct and cannot, unfortunately, be reproached with anything. I have never observed a chair shift from one foot to another, or a bed rear on its hind legs. And tables, even when they are tired, will not dare to bend their knees. I suspect that objects do this from pedagogical considerations, to reprove us constantly for our instability.
Be courageous when the mind deceives you Be courageous In the final account only this is important
And if the City falls and one survives _x000D_ he shall carry the City within on the roads of exile _x000D_ he shall be the City
forgive me also that I didn't fight like Lord Byron for the happiness of captive peoples that I watched only risings of the moon and museums
That's what kept us going - a sense of absurdity, rather than humor.
When fear displaces reason, the result is often irrational hatred and division.
Boxing is a celebration of the lost religion of masculinity all the more trenchant for its being lost.
Man may be defined as the animal that can say ''I,'' that can be aware of himself as a separate entity.
She felt, as she felt so often with Murphy, spattered with words that went dead as soon as they sounded; each word obliterated, before it had time to make sense, by the word that came next; so that in the end she did not know what had been said. It was like difficult music heard for the first time.
I think that certainty is a closed door, It's the end of the conversation. Doubt is an open door.
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