The anguish of the neurotic individual is the same as that of the saint. The neurotic, the saint are engaged in the same battle. Their blood flows from similar wounds. But the first one gasps and the other one gives.
Georges BatailleRead
A judgment about life has no meaning except the truth of the one who speaks last, and the mind is at ease only at the moment when everyone is shouting at once and no one can hear a thing.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that individual judgments about life are subjective and can become meaningless in the chaos of collective opinion.
Georges Bataille's quote reflects on the nature of truth and judgment in life, asserting that the last voice to speak holds the ultimate truth in a discussion. It implies that in a cacophony of opinions, real understanding and peace can only be achieved when no single voice dominates, leading to a sense of collective disarray where judgment becomes irrelevant and everyone is drowned out in the noise.
Themes
TruthJudgmentChaosOpinionPeace
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate about societal norms, you might invoke this quote to illustrate how personal truths can become lost in collective noise.
More from Georges Bataille
All quotes →I believe that truth has only one face: that of a violent contradiction.
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What does physical eroticism signify if not a violation of the very being of its practitioners? – A violation bordering on death, bordering on murder?
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It is clear that the world is purely parodic, that each thing seen is the parody of another, or is the same thing in a deceptive form.
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I think that knowledge enslaves us, that at the base of all knowledge there is a servility, the acceptation of a way of life wherein each moment has meaning only in relation to another or others that will follow it.
Georges BatailleRead
Eroticism is assenting to life even in death.
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