There, by the starlit fences The wanderer halts and hears My soul that lingers sighing About the glimmering weirs.
A. E. HousmanRead
If a man will comprehend the richness and variety of the universe, and inspire his mind with a due measure of wonder and awe, he must contemplate the human intellect not only on its heights of genius but in its abysses of ineptitude.
Interpretation
To truly understand the universe, one must recognize both the heights and depths of human intelligence.
A. E. Housman's quote emphasizes the importance of contemplating the full spectrum of human intellect, from its greatest achievements to its deepest failures. It suggests that true comprehension of the universe requires an appreciation for both the brilliance and the absurdity of human thought, provoking a sense of wonder and humility in the face of our existence.
In practice
In a lecture on philosophy, one might quote this to illustrate the dual nature of human understanding.
There, by the starlit fences The wanderer halts and hears My soul that lingers sighing About the glimmering weirs.
Who made the world I cannot tell; 'Tis made, and here am I in hell. My hand, though now my knuckles bleed, I never soiled with such a deed.
I am not a pessimist but a pejorist (as George Eliot said she was not an optimist but a meliorist); and that philosophy is founded on my observation of the world, not on anything so trivial and irrelevant as personal history.
Lovers lying two and two Ask not whom they sleep beside, And the bridegroom all night through Never turns him to the bride.
And malt does more than Milton can to justify God's ways to man.
Oh, 'tis jesting, dancing, drinking_x000D_ _x000D_ Spins the heavy world around.
The City is an addictive machine from which there is no escape
Let us treasure up in our soul some of those things which are permanent..., not of those which will forsake us and be destroyed, and which only tickle our senses for a little while.
When lenity and cruelty play for a kingdom, the gentler gamester is the soonest winner
A saint is a person who behaves decently in a shockingly indecent society.
Christians, indeed, have a special obligation not to forget how great and how inextinguishable the human proclivity for violence is, or how many victims it has claimed, for they worship a God who does not merely take the part of those victims, but who was himself one of them, murdered by the combined authority and moral prudence of the political, religious, and legal powers of human society.
The world leans on us. When we sag, the whole world seems to droop.
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