QuoteProject
Our live experiences, fixed in aphorisms, stiffen into cold epigrams. Our heart's blood, as we write it, turns to mere dull ink.
F. H. Bradley
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote suggests that the essence of our life experiences, when reduced to simple sayings, loses its emotional depth and significance.

F. H. Bradley reflects on the transformation of profound life experiences into mere words. He argues that when we attempt to encapsulate our heartfelt experiences into aphorisms or epigrams, we strip them of their richness and emotional weight, turning them into something lifeless and dull.

Themes

ExperiencesAphorismsEmotionWritingMeaning

In practice

Example use cases

During a public speaking event on the power of storytelling.

More from F. H. Bradley

The hunter for aphorisms on human nature has to fish in muddy water, and he is even condemned to find much of his own mind.
F. H. BradleyRead
Where everything is bad it must be good to know the worst.
F. H. BradleyRead
The secret of happiness is to admire without desiring. And that is not happiness.
F. H. BradleyRead
True penitence condemns to silence. What a man is ready to recall he would be willing to repeat.
F. H. BradleyRead
Metaphysics is the finding of bad reasons for what we believe on instinct.
F. H. BradleyRead
One said of suicide, As long as one has brains one should not blow them out. And another answered, But when one has ceased to have them, too often one cannot.
F. H. BradleyRead

Similar quotes

The moment you venture out, something takes place in you and about you. Life comes to your aid in various ways. You may not like the form in which it comes to you - it may be misery, struggle, starvation - but when you invite life, things begin to happen.
Jiddu KrishnamurtiRead
There is no God. But it does not matter. Man is enough.
Edna St. Vincent MillayRead
Isaiah was so attuned to God, because of the great crisis he had just endured, that the call of God penetrated his soul. The majority of us cannot hear anything but ourselves. And we cannot hear anything God says. But to be brought to the place where we can hear the call of God is to be profoundly changed.
Oswald ChambersRead
But I'm a bad priest, you see. I know--from experience--how much beauty Satan carried down with him when he fell. Nobody ever said the fallen angels were the ugly ones. Oh, no, they were just as quick and light and . . .
Graham GreeneRead
True Christian is not an angel; he is not a halfangelic being, in whom is no weakness, or blemish, or infirmity: he is nothing of the kind. He is nothing more than a sinner who has found out his sinfulness, and has learned the blessed secret of living by faith in Christ.
J. C. RyleRead
If you look at the developments in the international scene over the past many years, we haven't been able to resolve many problems and many crises, because we have approached them from a zero-sum perspective. My gain has always been defined as somebody else's loss, and through that, we never resolve problems.
Mohammad Javad ZarifRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.

Quote by F. H. Bradley | QuoteProject