To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.
Henri BergsonRead
For life is tendency, and the essence of a tendency is to develop in the form of a sheaf, creating, by its very growth, divergent directions among which its impetus is divided.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Life is about growth and development, leading to various paths and directions.
Henri Bergson's quote highlights the dynamic nature of life as an ongoing process characterized by trends and tendencies. As life progresses, these tendencies lead to various developments and divergent paths, reflecting that growth is not linear but multifaceted and complex, with energies and intentions distributed in different directions.
Themes
LifeTendencyGrowthDivergencePhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about personal development, I would use this quote to emphasize the importance of embracing life's changes.
More from Henri Bergson
All quotes →Laughter is the corrective force which prevents us from becoming cranks.
Henri BergsonRead
I believe that the time given to refutation in philosophy is usually time lost. Of the many attacks directed by many thinkers against each other, what now remains? Nothing, or assuredly very little. That which counts and endures is the modicum of positive truth which each contributes. The true statement is, of itself, able to displace the erroneous idea, and becomes, without our having taken the trouble of refuting anyone, the best of refutations.
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Religion is to mysticism what popularization is to science
Henri BergsonRead
And I also see how this body influences external images: it gives back movement to them.
Henri BergsonRead
There are manifold tones of mental life, or, in other words, our psychic life may be lived at different heights, now nearer to action, now further removed from it, according to the degree of our attention to life.
Henri BergsonRead
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