Everything is complicated; if that were not so, life and poetry and everything else would be a bore.
Wallace StevensRead
Perhaps it is of more value to infuriate philosophers than to go along with them.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Challenging established thinkers can be more beneficial than simply agreeing with them.
Wallace Stevens suggests that provoking philosophical thought may lead to greater value than simply adhering to conventional wisdom. This statement implies that the act of questioning and challenging existing ideas fosters deeper understanding and innovation, encouraging an environment where new thoughts can emerge and flourish.
Themes
PhilosophyChallengeThoughtValueInnovation
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate about philosophical ideas, this quote could be used to advocate for critical thinking.
More from Wallace Stevens
All quotes βMost modern reproducers of life, even including the camera, really repudiate it. We gulp down evil, choke at good.
Wallace StevensRead
After one has abandoned a belief in God, poetry is that essence which takes its place as life's redemption.
Wallace StevensRead
Why should she give her bounty to the dead? What is divinity if it can come Only in silent shadows and in dreams?
Wallace StevensRead
LIGHT FROM WITHIN my friend, cancer got you damn it: you had it beat for seven years at least. how did it come back? Why all that pain. again. and you, such a fighter you fought me over and over with tears and words and promises. you fought for me with honesty and a light so bright it hurts my heart. sweet lorna. at peace now finally no more battles, just light from within a flickering candle in the dark burns with you.
Wallace StevensRead
Unfortunately there is nothing more inane than an Easter carol. It is a religious perversion of the activity of Spring in our blood.
Wallace StevensRead
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But night would come and with it the mountain moon and the lake would be moon - laned and I'd go out and sit in the grass and meditate facing west, wishing there were a Personal God in all this impersonal matter.
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A coin is turned around before it is handed to the beggar, yet a child is unflinchingly tossed into cosmic bruteness.
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