Rash indeed is he who reckons on tomorrow, or happily on the days beyond it; for tomorrow is not, until today is past.
SophoclesRead
It has long been known to me that certain objects want you as much as you want them. These are the ones that become important, the objects that you hold dear. The others fade from your life entirely. You wanted them, but they did not want you in return.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the reciprocal nature of desire and attachment towards objects or relationships.
Sheila Heti suggests that the significance of objects in our lives is often determined by a mutual desire. When something holds importance to us, it's usually because it reciprocates our affection and attention; in contrast, those that do not share this connection tend to be forgotten or fade away.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion about materialism at a philosophy class.
Rash indeed is he who reckons on tomorrow, or happily on the days beyond it; for tomorrow is not, until today is past.
People think that I must be a very strange person. This is not correct. I have the heart of a small boy. It is in a glass jar on my desk.
We’re only here for a short while. And I think it’s such a lucky accident, having been born, that we’re almost obliged to pay attention.
The "discovery" of poverty at the beginning of the 1960s was something like the "discovery" of America almost five hundred years earlier. In the case of each of these exotic terrains, plenty of people were on the site before the discoverers ever arrived.
Compassion has enemies, and those enemies are things like pity, moral outrage, fear.
Sometimes I am asked if I know 'the response to Auschwitz; I answer that not only do I not know it, but that I don't even know if a tragedy of this magnitude has a response.
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