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
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Knowledge can confine us by creating a dependency on external validation and context.
In this quote, Georges Bataille expresses the idea that knowledge, rather than liberating us, can actually bind us in a servile relationship to time and societal expectations. He suggests that meaning is often derived from a linear progression where each moment is only significant in relation to those that come before or after, implying that this interconnectedness can inhibit true freedom and individuality.
Themes
KnowledgeServilityMeaningLifeContextFreedom
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be shared during a discussion on the limitations of formal education.
More from Georges Bataille
All quotes →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.
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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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Eroticism is assenting to life even in death.
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