The camera is for us a tool, not a pretty mechanical toy ... people think far too much about techniques and not enough about seeing.
Henri Cartier-BressonRead
It is through living that we discover ourselves, at the same time as we discover the world around us.
Interpretation
What this quote means
We learn about our own identities while also gaining knowledge of the world through our experiences.
This quote emphasizes the idea that self-discovery and understanding of the world are intertwined experiences. As we engage with life, we not only learn about our personal values and beliefs but also become more aware of the world and its complexities. The act of living, with its myriad experiences, serves as a mirror reflecting our true selves while simultaneously exposing us to diverse perspectives and cultures that shape our understanding of existence.
Themes
Self-DiscoveryExperienceWorldIdentityLiving
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about self-exploration.
More from Henri Cartier-Bresson
All quotes βThe most difficult thing for me is a portrait. You have to try and put your camera between the skin of a person and his shirt.
Henri Cartier-BressonRead
Photography has not changed since its origin except in its technical aspects, which for me are not important.
Henri Cartier-BressonRead
Photographier: c'est mettre sur la meme ligne de mire la tete, l'oeil et le coeur.
Henri Cartier-BressonRead
Above all, I craved to seize the whole essence, in the confines of one single photograph, of some situation that was in the process of unrolling itself before my eyes.
Henri Cartier-BressonRead
Pictures, regardless of how they are created and recreated, are intended to be looked at. This brings to the forefront not the technology of imaging, which of course is important, but rather what we might call the eyenology (seeing).
Henri Cartier-BressonRead
Similar quotes
Character is a quality that embodies many important traits, such as integrity, courage, perseverance, confidence and wisdom. Unlike your fingerprints that you are born with and can't change, character is something that you create within yourself and must take responsibility for changing
Jim RohnRead
You may not believe in magic but something very strange is happening at this very moment. Your head has dissolved into thin air and I can see the rhododendrons through your stomach. It's not that you are dead or anything dramatic like that, it is simply that you are fading away and I can't even remember your name.
Leonora CarringtonRead
The war-function has grasped us so far; but the constructive interests may some day seem no less imperative, and impose on the individual a hardly lighter burden.
William JamesRead
The people always have some champion whom they set over them and nurse into greatness. ... This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector.
PlatoRead
After reading all that has been written, and after thinking all that can be thought, on the topics of God and the soul, the man who has a right to say that he thinks at all, will find himself face to face with the conclusion that, on these topics, the most profound thought is that which can be the least easily distinguished from the most superficial sentiment.
Edgar Allan PoeRead
I realize now that people are not thinking about you and me or caring what is said about us. They are thinking about themselves-before breakfast, after breakfast, and right on until ten minutes past midnight. They would be a thousand times more concerned about a slight headache of their own than they would about the news of your death or mine.
Dale CarnegieRead