Parents are usually more careful to bestow knowledge on their children rather than virtue, the art of speaking well rather than doing well; but their manners should be of the greatest concern.
R. Buckminster FullerRead
Ninety-nine per cent of who you are is invisible and untouchable.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Our true selves are often hidden from view and cannot be easily grasped.
This quote by R. Buckminster Fuller emphasizes the idea that much of our identity and essence lies beneath the surface. While our physical presence and actions are visible, the deeper attributes such as thoughts, emotions, and values compose the majority of who we truly are, which is often undetectable in a superficial observation of others.
Themes
IdentityInvisibleEssenceSelfPhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
During a motivational talk about self-awareness and personal growth.
More from R. Buckminster Fuller
All quotes βThere is no such thing as genius, some children are just less damaged than others.
R. Buckminster FullerRead
Only the free-wheeling artist-explorer, non-academic, scientist-philosopher, mechanic, economist-poet who has never waited for patron-starting and accrediting of his co-ordinate capabilities holds the prime initiative today.
R. Buckminster FullerRead
The end move in politics is always to pick up a gun.
R. Buckminster FullerRead
I have spent most of my life unlearning things that were proved not to be true
R. Buckminster FullerRead
The earth is like a spaceship that didn't come with an operating manual.
R. Buckminster FullerRead
Similar quotes
No history can be a faithful mirror. If it were, it would be as long and as dull as life itself. It must be a selection, and, being a selection, must inevitably be biased.
T. E. HulmeRead
The moment the slave resolves that he will no longer be a slave, his fetters fall. Freedom and slavery are mental states.
Mahatma GandhiRead
What is 'grace'? It is God's own life, shared by us. God's life is love. Deus caritas est. By grace we are able to share in the infinitely selfless love of Him Who is such pure actuality that He needs nothing and therefore cannot conceivably exploit anything for selfish ends. Indeed, outside of Him there is nothing, and whatever exists exists by His free gift of its being, so that one of the notions that is absolutely contradictory to the perfection of God is selfishness.
Thomas MertonRead
I wondered, as I wondered so often when I was that age, who I was, and what exactly was looking at the face in the mirror. If the face I was looking at wasn't me, and I knew it wasn't, because I would still be me whatever happened to my face, then what was me? And what was watching?
Neil GaimanRead
Reality is a prison, where one vegetates and always will. All the rest - thought, action - is just a pastime, mental or physical. What counts then, is to come to grips with reality. The rest can go.
Cesare PaveseRead
What a child does not know and does not want to know of race and color and class, he learns soon enough as he grows to see each man flipped inexorably into some predestined groove like a penny or a sovereign in a banker's rack.
Beryl MarkhamRead