From the perspective of mere representation, the external world always remains only a phenomenon.
Wilhelm DiltheyRead
The individual always realizes only one of the possibilities in his development, which could always have taken a different turning whenever he had to make an important decision.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Each choice we make leads us down a specific path, leaving other possibilities unexplored.
This quote by Wilhelm Dilthey emphasizes the nature of human development and decision-making. It suggests that every individual has multiple potential paths or possibilities in their life, but only one of those paths is realized based on the choices they make during critical moments. Each decision has the power to define our trajectory, highlighting the significance of the choices we encounter and the weight of their outcomes.
Themes
ChoicesDecisionsPossibilitiesDevelopmentPotential
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about personal growth, one might use this quote to inspire others to consider the impact of their choices.
More from Wilhelm Dilthey
All quotes βAny theory intended to describe and analyze socio-historical reality cannot restrict itself to the human spirit and disregard the totality of human nature.
Wilhelm DiltheyRead
The sciences which take socio-historical reality as their subject matter are seeking, more intensively than ever before, their systematic relations to one another and to their foundation.
Wilhelm DiltheyRead
The knife of historical relativism... which has cut to pieces all metaphysics and religion must also bring about healing.
Wilhelm DiltheyRead
All science is experiential; but all experience must be related back to and derives its its validity from the conditions and context of consciousness in which it arises, i.e., the totality of our nature.
Wilhelm DiltheyRead
If there were a science of human beings it would be anthropology that aims at understanding the totality of experience through structural context.
Wilhelm DiltheyRead
Similar quotes
To live life well is to express life poorly; if one expresses life too well, one is living it no longer.
Gaston BachelardRead
and never really thought I'd amount to anything. It was precisely what I wanted the whole world to think; then I could sneak in, if that's what they wanted, and sneak out again, which I did.
Jack KerouacRead
Have you never been moved by poor men's fidelity, the image of you they form in their simple minds? Why should you always talk of their envy, without understanding that what they ask of you is not so much your worldly goods, as something very hard to define, which they themselves can put no name to; yet at times it consoles their loneliness; a dream of splendor, of magnificence, a tawdry dream, a poor man's dream -and yet God blesses it!
Georges BernanosRead
The heart lies and the head plays tricks with us, but the eyes see true.
George R. R. MartinRead
A retaliator behaves like a hawk when he is attacked by a hawk, and like a dove when he meets a dove. When he meets another retaliator he plays like a dove. A retaliator is a conditional strategist. His behaviour depends on the behaviour of his opponent.
Richard DawkinsRead
Remove the Ego and Avidya (Ignorance) is gone. Look for it, the ego vanishes and the real Self alone remains.
Ramana MaharshiRead