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
There is nothing deep down inside us except what we have put there ourselves.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Our inner selves are shaped by our own actions and choices.
Richard Rorty's quote suggests that our true essence and identity are not inherent or given, but rather constructed by our experiences, beliefs, and choices. It emphasizes personal responsibility in creating oneβs own meaning and understanding of the self, revealing that the depths of our being are formed through the contributions we consciously decide to place within ourselves.
Themes
IdentitySelfPhilosophyResponsibilityChoices
In practice
Example use cases
During a motivational speech about self-discovery.
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
National pride is to countries what self-respect is to individuals: a necessary condition for self-improvement.
Richard RortyRead
A talent for speaking differently, rather than for arguing well is the chief instrument of cultural change.
Richard RortyRead
Similar quotes
It isn't what people think that is important, but the reason they think what they think.
Eugene IonescoRead
Do I need to argue to Your Honor that cruelty only breeds cruelty? That hatred only causes hatred; that if there is any way to soften this human heart which is hard enough at its best, if there is any way to kill evil and hatred and all that goes with it, it is not through evil and hatred and cruelty; it is through charity, and love, and understanding?
Clarence DarrowRead
The power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man.
Thomas MalthusRead
Like and equal are not the same thing at all. -- Meg Murray
Madeleine L'EngleRead
I work a lot with blind people in my spare time outside of Unilever, and I count my blessings every day.
Paul PolmanRead
Maybe at the heart of all our traveling is the dream of someday, somehow, getting Home.
Frederick BuechnerRead