Secrecy involves a tension which, at the moment of revelation, finds its release.
Georg SimmelRead
Music and love are the only accomplishments of humanity which do not, in an absolute sense, have to be called attempts with unsuitable means.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Music and love are pure expressions of humanity that need no justification.
In this quote, Georg Simmel suggests that music and love stand out as the two greatest achievements of humankind, as they are inherently valuable and do not require external validation or justification. Unlike many other pursuits that may be seen as flawed or utilitarian, music and love resonate deeply within the human experience, embodying authenticity and emotional depth.
Themes
MusicLoveHumanityAccomplishmentsEmotional Expression
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech about the importance of the arts, one could integrate this quote to emphasize the value of music and love.
More from Georg Simmel
All quotes βSecrecy is thus, so to speak, a transition stadium between being and not-being.
Georg SimmelRead
Discretion is nothing other than the sense of justice with respect to the sphere of the intimate contents of life.
Georg SimmelRead
In the immediate as well as the symbolic sense, in the physical as well as the intellectual sense, we are at any moment those who separate the connected, or connect the separate.
Georg SimmelRead
For the division of labor demands from the individual an ever more one-sided accomplishment, and the greatest advance in a one-sided pursuit only too frequently means dearth to the personality of the individual.
Georg SimmelRead
By my existence I am nothing more than an empty place, an outline,that is reserved within being in general. Given with it, though, is the duty to fill in this empty place. That is my life.
Georg SimmelRead
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Yevgeny ZamyatinRead
If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only ways I know it. Is there any other way?
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If you can see yourself as an artist, and you can see that your life is your own creation, then why not create the most beautiful story for yourself?
Miguel Angel RuizRead
As a poet and writer, I deeply love and I deeply hate words. I love the infinite evidence and change and requirements and possibilities of language; every human use of words that is joyful, or honest or new, because experience is new... But as a Black poet and writer, I hate words that cancel my name and my history and the freedom of my future: I hate the words that condemn and refuse the language of my people in America.
June JordanRead