They say you can't study Kabbalah until you are at least 40 years old. You know why? You have to have experienced at least one generation making the same mistakes as the previous one.
David MametRead
I've always been more comfortable sinking while clutching a good theory than swimming with an ugly fact.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights a preference for theoretical ideals over uncomfortable realities.
David Mamet expresses a common human tendency to find solace in concepts and theories that provide comfort, even if they're not practically true, rather than confronting harsh realities that may be unappealing. This reflects how individuals often cling to ideas that resonate with them emotionally, despite their practical implications.
Themes
TheoryFactComfortRealityTruth
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about how people's beliefs can be influenced by personal comfort over factual evidence.
More from David Mamet
All quotes βMy alma mater is the Chicago Public Library. I got what little educational foundation I got in the third-floor reading room, under the tutelage of a Coca-Cola sign.
David MametRead
You know, young actors say all the time, 'Should I use my own life experience?' And my response is, 'What choice do you have?'
David MametRead
It's hard for a Jew of my generation, an American Jew, who is philo-Zionistic, not to romanticize Israel.
David MametRead
You can't write about history without writing about politics at some point. History is about movements of people. 'What is criminality and what is government' is a theme that runs through every history.
David MametRead
Every reiteration of the idea that nothing matters debases the human spirit.
David MametRead
Similar quotes
Possession, it is true, crowns exertion with rest; but it is only in the illusions of fancy that it has power to charm us.
Wilhelm Von HumboldtRead
I am baffled by the way sophisticated theologians who know Adam and Eve never existed still keep talking about it.
Richard DawkinsRead
To know that you are neither the body nor mind, watch yourself steadily and live unaffected by your body and mind, completely aloof, as if you were dead. It means you have no vested interests, either in the body or in the mind.
Sri Nisargadatta MaharajRead
Walter Benjamin knew that the break in tradition and loss of authority which occurred in his lifetime were irreparable, and he concluded that he had to discover new ways of dealing with the past. In this he became a master when he discovered that the transmissibility of the past had been replaced by the citability and that in place of its authority there had arisen a strange power to settle down, piecemeal, in the present and to deprive it of βpeace of mind,β the mindless peace of complacency.
Hannah ArendtRead
The religion that has to be supported by law is without value, not only, but a fraud and a curse. The religious argument that has to be supported by a musket is hardly worth making.
Robert Green IngersollRead
So utterly at variance is Destiny with all the little plans of men.
H. G. WellsRead