Dwelling is not primarily inhabiting but taking care of and creating that space within which something comes into its own and flourishes.
Martin HeideggerRead
To be a poet in a destitute time means: to attend, singing, to the trace of the fugitive gods. This is why the poet in the time of the world's night utters the holy.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that being a poet during difficult times involves acknowledging and celebrating the beauty and transcendence in life despite adversity.
Martin Heidegger highlights the role of the poet as a vital observer and interpreter of the human experience, especially in challenging times. In periods of hardship, the poet's duty is to seek out and express the deeper spiritual truths that can often be overlooked. By 'singing' about the 'fugitive gods', the poet illuminates the sacred aspects of life that endure, providing hope and inspiration to others in a seemingly dark world.
Themes
PoetryAdversitySpiritualityBeautyHope
In practice
Example use cases
During a writing workshop, a teacher might reference this quote to inspire students to find beauty in their struggles.
More from Martin Heidegger
All quotes →Celebration... is self restraint, is attentiveness, is questioning, is meditating, is awaiting, is the step over into the more wakeful glimpse of the wonder - the wonder that a world is worlding around us at all, that there are beings rather than nothing, that things are and we ourselves are in their midst, that we ourselves are and yet barely know who we are, and barely know that we do not know all this.
Martin HeideggerRead
Transcendence constitutes selfhood.
Martin HeideggerRead
So long as we represent technology as an instrument, we remain held fast in the will to master it.
Martin HeideggerRead
Everyone is the other and no one is himself.
Martin HeideggerRead
The most thought-provoking thing in our thought-provoking time is that we are still not thinking.
Martin HeideggerRead
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