Dwelling is not primarily inhabiting but taking care of and creating that space within which something comes into its own and flourishes.
Martin HeideggerRead
And so man, as existing transcendence abounding in and surpassing toward possibilities, is a creature of distance. Only through the primordial distances he establishes toward all being in his transcendence does a true nearness to things flourish in him.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that human existence is defined by a search for meaning and connection beyond our immediate reality.
Heidegger indicates that humanity's essence is found in our ability to transcend our limitations and reach towards greater possibilities. The distances we create in our existence, as we strive for understanding and connection with the world, ultimately lead to a deeper intimacy with the essence of things around us. This interplay of distance and nearness illustrates the complexity of human experience and our quest for meaning.
Themes
ExistenceTranscendencePossibilitiesBeingNearness
In practice
Example use cases
In a philosophy class discussing the nature of existence.
More from Martin Heidegger
All quotes →Celebration... is self restraint, is attentiveness, is questioning, is meditating, is awaiting, is the step over into the more wakeful glimpse of the wonder - the wonder that a world is worlding around us at all, that there are beings rather than nothing, that things are and we ourselves are in their midst, that we ourselves are and yet barely know who we are, and barely know that we do not know all this.
Martin HeideggerRead
Transcendence constitutes selfhood.
Martin HeideggerRead
So long as we represent technology as an instrument, we remain held fast in the will to master it.
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Everyone is the other and no one is himself.
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The most thought-provoking thing in our thought-provoking time is that we are still not thinking.
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