One always pulls the trigger out of self-interest and quotes history to avoid responsibility or pangs of conscience.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that actions are often driven by self-interest, with individuals using historical references to evade accountability.
Joseph Brodsky's quote reflects the notion that human behavior is frequently motivated by personal gain, and individuals may reference past events to justify their actions and escape moral or ethical responsibility. This idea highlights the complexities of conscience and the often self-serving rationalizations that accompany decisions, emphasizing the struggle between personal interests and ethical considerations.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion about ethics in business.
Basically, it's hard for me to assess myself, a hardship not only prompted by the immodesty of the enterprise, but because one is not capable of assessing himself, let alone his work. However, if I were to summarize, my main interest is the nature of time. That's what interests me most of all. What time can do to a man.
On the whole, infinity is a fairly palpable aspect of this business of publishing, if only because it extends a dead author's existence beyond the limits he envisioned, or provides a living author with a future he cannot measure. In other words, this business deals with the future which we all prefer to regard as unending.
The invention of ethical and political doctrines, which blossomed into our own social sciences, is a product of times when things appeared manageable. The same goes for the criticism of those doctrines, though as a voice from the past, this criticism proved prophetic.
Try not to pay attention to those who will try to make life miserable for you. There will be a lot of those - in the official capacity as well as the self-appointed.
To put it in plain language, Russia is that country where the name of a writer appears not on the cover of his book, but on the door of his prison cell.
I remember myself, age five, sitting on a porch overlooking a very muddy road. The day was rainy. I was wearing rubber boots, yellow - no, not yellow, green - and for all I know, I'm still there.
It is impossible that had Buonaparte descended from a race of vegetable feeders that he could have had either the inclination or the power to ascend the throne of the Bourbons.
O, call back yesterday, bid time return
Personally of course I regret everything. Not a word, not a deed, not a thought, not a need, not a grief, not a joy, not a girl, not a boy, not a doubt, not a trust, not a scorn, not a lust, not a hope, not a fear, not a smile, not a tear, not a name, not a face, no time, no place...that I do not regret, exceedingly. An ordure, from beginning to end.
Satan can make men dance upon the brink of hell as though they were on the verge of heaven.
I'm an atheist, and that's it. I believe there's nothing we can know except that we should be kind to each other and do what we can for people.
When I got religion, I found some work to do to benefit somebody.
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