Nothing human is finally calculable; even to ourselves we are strange.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that human nature is complex and unpredictable, even to ourselves.
Gore Vidal's quote highlights the inherent unpredictability of human behavior and the complexities of self-knowledge. It implies that despite our attempts to understand and quantify human actions and motivations, there remains an element of strangeness that defies calculation, underscoring the intricacies of individuality and the mysterious aspects of our own identities that we may never fully comprehend.
In practice
In a philosophy class discussing the nature of humanity, this quote can be used to illustrate the complexities of self-perception.
We must declare ourselves, become known; allow the world to discover this subterranean life of ours which connects kings and farm boys, artists and clerks. Let them see that the important thing is not the object of love, but the emotion itself.
American writers want to be not good but great; and so are neither.
Writing fiction has become a priestly business in countries that have lost their faith.
The important thing is not the object of love, but the emotion itself.
For the average American, freedom of speech is simply the freedom to repeat what everyone else is saying and no more.
Ayn Rand's 'philosophy' is nearly perfect in its immorality, which makes the size of her audience all the more ominous and symptomatic as we enter a curious new phase in our society.... To justify and extol human greed and egotism is to my mind not only immoral, but evil.
For me the present is merged in eternity. I may not sacrifice the latter for the present.
Evey Hammond: Who are you? V: Who? Who is but the form following the function of what and what I am is a man in a mask. Evey Hammond: Well I can see that. V: Of course you can. I'm not questioning your powers of observation I'm merely remarking upon the paradox of asking a masked man who he is
Against the suffering which may come upon one from human relationships the readiest safeguard is voluntary isolation, keeping oneself aloof from other people. The happiness which can be achieved along this path is, as we see, the happiness of quietness. Against the dreaded external world one can only defend oneself by some kind of turning away from it, if one intends to solve the task by oneself.
Why should I wish to see God better than this day? I see something of God each hour of the twenty-four, and each moment then, In the faces of men and women I see God, and in my own face in the glass; I find letters from God dropped in the street, and every one is signed by God's name, And I leave them where they are, for I know that others will punctually come forever and ever.
Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality.
Maybe if I didn't pick up that one person, I wouldn't have picked up forty-two thousand.
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