What we make of people, and what we see in the mirror when we look at ourselves, depends on what we know of the world, what we believe to be possible, what memories we have, and whether our loyalties are to the past, the present or the future.
Interpretation
Our perceptions of others and ourselves are shaped by our knowledge, beliefs, memories, and loyalties to time.
This quote by Theodore Zeldin emphasizes the complexity of human perception, suggesting that how we view other people and ourselves is not merely a reflection of reality but rather a construct influenced by our experiences and beliefs. It highlights the importance of context, suggesting that our memories and priorities towards the past, present, or future play a significant role in shaping our views and interactions with the world around us.
In practice
This quote can be used in a philosophical discussion about human perception.
Conversation is a meeting of minds with different memories and habits. When minds meet, they don't just exchange facts: they transform them, reshape them, draw different implications from them, engage in new trains of thought. Conversation doesn't just reshuffle the cards: it creates new cards.
We think of speaking as something we do naturally, without any effort. But like playing music, it requires attention and knowledge and practice.
So much of what passes for conversation today is degraded. It's either about one-upmanship, or dreary trivia. Even the cut and thrust of wit and bons mots is a form of bedazzlement designed to stop conversations dead rather than broaden them.
It is in the power of everybody, with a little courage, to hold out a hand to someone different, to listen, to attempt to increase, by even a tiny amount, the quantity of kindness and humanity in the world.
I think one of the most important changes of our time has been our attitude to fear. Every civilisation defends itself by keeping fears out and saying 'we protect you from fear'. But it also produces new fears and throughout history people have changed the kind of fears which have worried them.
Conversation creates a new kind of network within organizations. Current networks are used for competitive advantage, but conversation is focused on encouraging people to realize their potential.
In reading, you sense the divine: the things that are larger and greater and more mysterious than yourself.
A small grove massacred to the last ash, _x000D_ _x000D_ An oak with heart-rot, give away the show: _x000D_ _x000D_ This great society is going to smash; _x000D_ _x000D_ They cannot fool us with how fast they go, _x000D_ _x000D_ How much they cost each other and the gods. _x000D_ _x000D_ A culture is no better than its woods.
True human goodness, in all its purity and freedom, can come to the fore only when its recipient has no power.
Not because Socrates said so, but because it is in truth my own disposition β and perchance to some excess β I look upon all men as my compatriots, and embrace a Pole as a Frenchman, making less account of the national than of the universal and common bond.
I don't believe in naming clients to get press. I hated it when I was a couture client. If the dresses don't sell themselves, there is something wrong.
If you break your finger, that's on you, right? But if you get a chronic illness, if you get a serious illness or life-threatening illness, that's something I think we should all share the cost in because we all face the same unknowns and the same risks.
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