My principal motive is the belief that we can still make admirable sense of our lives even if we cease to have... an ambition of transcendence.
Richard RortyRead
National pride is to countries what self-respect is to individuals: a necessary condition for self-improvement.
Interpretation
What this quote means
National pride is essential for a country's growth, just as self-respect is vital for individual development.
Richard Rorty's quote emphasizes the importance of national pride as a fundamental aspect that contributes to a nation's progress and self-improvement. Just as self-respect motivates individuals to better themselves and strive for greater achievements, a sense of national pride can inspire citizens to work collectively toward the betterment of their country, fostering unity, ambition, and a desire for growth.
Themes
National PrideSelf-RespectSelf-ImprovementGrowthDevelopment
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about national unity, one might quote Rorty to inspire citizens to take pride in their countryβs achievements.
More from Richard Rorty
All quotes βTo say that truth is not out there is simply to say that where there are no sentences there is no truth, that sentences are elements of human languages, and that languages are human creations.~ The suggestion that truth~ is out there is a legacy of an age in which the world was seen as the creation of a being who had a language his own.
Richard RortyRead
The world does not speak. Only we do. The world can, once we have programmed ourselves with a language, cause us to hold beliefs. But it cannot propose a language for us to speak. Only other human beings can do that.
Richard RortyRead
Philosophy makes progress not by becoming more rigorous but by becoming more imaginative.
Richard RortyRead
A talent for speaking differently, rather than for arguing well is the chief instrument of cultural change.
Richard RortyRead
There is nothing deep down inside us except what we have put there ourselves.
Richard RortyRead
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