The death clock is ticking slowly in our breast, and each drop of blood measures its time, and our life is a lingering fever.
Georg BuchnerRead
We have not made the Revolution, the Revolution has made us.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that significant societal changes shape individuals rather than the other way around.
Georg Buchner's quote highlights the idea that major historical events, such as revolutions, play a crucial role in shaping the identities, beliefs, and behaviors of individuals within society. Rather than individuals being the sole agents of change, it is the collective upheaval that influences and molds people, making them products of the circumstances and movements of their time.
Themes
RevolutionChangeIdentitySocietyHistory
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about the impact of social movements on personal identity.
More from Georg Buchner
All quotes βThe breath of an aristocrat is the death rattle of freedom.
Georg BuchnerRead
Raise your eyes and count the small gang of your oppressors who are only strong through the blood they suck from you and through your arms which you lend them unwillingly.
Georg BuchnerRead
Similar quotes
Even the simplest choice can make a jaw-dropping difference in our world.
Tom HanksRead
In order to accommodate to change and to the contrast of phenomena, the intellect does not require any shocks and inner upheavals; it is only through such upheavals that the more conservative mind could accommodate to the metropolitan rhythm of events.
Georg SimmelRead
Change your conception of yourself and you will automatically change the world in which you live. Do not try to change people; they are only messengers telling you who you are. Revalue yourself and they will confirm the change.
Neville GoddardRead
You cannot easily fit women into a structure that is already coded as male; you have to change the structure.
Mary BeardRead
Men do change, and change comes like a little wind that ruffles the curtains at dawn, and it comes like the stealthy perfume of wildflowers hidden in the grass.
John SteinbeckRead
We must quickly mobilize our civilization with the urgency and resolve that has previously been seen only when nations mobilized for war. These prior struggles for survival were won when leaders found words at the 11th hour that released a mighty surge of courage, hope and readiness to sacrifice for a protracted and mortal challenge.
Al GoreRead