Life is life - whether in a cat, or dog or man. There is no difference there between a cat or a man. The idea of difference is a human conception for man's own advantage.
Sri AurobindoRead
She saw too that man has the power of exceeding himself, of becoming himself more entirely and profoundly than he is, - truths which have only recently begun to be seen in Europe and seem even now too great for its common intelligence.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes humanity's potential for self-improvement and self-discovery.
Sri Aurobindo highlights the extraordinary capability within every individual to transcend their current state and fully realize their true self. This understanding of human potential is a relatively recent awakening in Europe, suggesting that society may not yet fully grasp the depth of this truth, pointing to an evolving awareness of personal and collective growth.
Themes
Self-ImprovementPotentialHumanityGrowthTranscendence
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech to inspire people to embrace their potential, one might use this quote.
More from Sri Aurobindo
All quotes →To listen to some devout people, one would imagine that God never laughs.
Sri AurobindoRead
Indian religion has always felt that since the minds, the temperaments and the intellectual affinities of men are unlimited in their variety, a perfect liberty of thought and of worship must be allowed to the individual in his approach to the Infinite.
Sri AurobindoRead
Be conscious first of thyself within, then think and act. All living thought is a world in preparation; all real act is a thought manifested. The material world exists because an idea began to play in divine self–consciousness.
Sri AurobindoRead
Evolution is not finished; reason is not the last word nor the reasoning animal the supreme figure of Nature. As man emerged out of the animal, so out of man the superman emerges.
Sri AurobindoRead
Impossibility is only a sum of greater unrealised possibles. It veils an advanced stage and a yet unaccomplished journey.
Sri AurobindoRead
Similar quotes
The concept that one ought to restrict one's political involvement to one's own state was deeply antithetical to those who were pursuing the accumulation of capital for its own sake.
Immanuel WallersteinRead
When silence is a choice, it is an unnerving presence. When silence is imposed, it is censorship.
Terry Tempest WilliamsRead
Vexed sailors cursed the rain, for which poor shepherds prayed in vain.
Edmund WallerRead
Every single one of us is a little civilization built on the ruins of any number of preceding civilizations, but with our own variant notions of what is beautiful and what is acceptable - which, I haste to add, we generally do not satisfy and by which we struggle to live.
Marilynne RobinsonRead
At the end of the day, it's not about starting a game in the NFL, winning a Super Bowl, or getting to the Hall of Fame. It's about representing yourself in a way that represents your faith.
Kurt WarnerRead
They sensed that what had happened around them and in their presence, and in them, was irrevocable. Never again could it be cleansed; it would prove that man, the human species - we, in short - had the potential to construct an enormity of pain, and that pain is the only force created from nothing, without cost and without effort. It is enough not to see, not to listen, not to act.
Primo LeviRead