QuoteProject
The shadow escapes from the body like an animal we had been sheltering.
Gilles Deleuze
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote suggests that our inner thoughts and aspects of ourselves can be elusive and difficult to grasp, much like a shadow.

Gilles Deleuze's quote reflects on the nature of the self and the unconscious. The imagery of a shadow escaping like a sheltered animal implies that parts of ourselves, especially those that are hidden or suppressed, can no longer be contained and will eventually break free. This notion resonates with the idea that our identity and subconscious desires are complex and often evade our understanding, mirroring the struggles of self-discovery and acceptance.

Themes

SelfIdentityShadowPhilosophyDeleuzeInner Thoughts

In practice

Example use cases

In a speech about self-awareness, this quote can illustrate the difficulties we face in understanding ourselves.

More from Gilles Deleuze

Language is not made to be believed but to be obeyed, and to compel obedience newspapers, news, proceed by redundancy, in that they tell us what we ‘must’ think, retain, expect, etc. language is neither informational nor communicational. It is not the communication of information but something quite different: the transmission of order-words, either from one statement to another or within each statement, insofar as each statement accomplishes an act and the act is accomplished in the statement
Gilles DeleuzeRead
Something in the world forces us to think. This something is an object not of recognition but of a fundamental encounter.
Gilles DeleuzeRead
Intuition is neither a feeling, an inspiration nor a disorderly sympathy but a fully developed method.
Gilles DeleuzeRead
Let us create extraordinary words, on condition that they be put to the most ordinary use and that the entity they designate be made to exist in the same way as the most common object.
Gilles DeleuzeRead
Forming grammatically correct sentences is for the normal individual the prerequisite for any submission to social laws. No one is supposed to be ignorant of grammaticality; those who are belong in special institutions. The unity of language is fundamentally political.
Gilles DeleuzeRead
Art is not communicative, art is not reflexive. Art, science, philosophy are neither contemplative, neither reflexive, nor communicative. They are creative, that's all.
Gilles DeleuzeRead

Similar quotes

I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma: but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest.
Winston ChurchillRead
No period of history has ever been great or ever can be that does not act on some sort of high, idealistic motives, and idealism in our time has been shoved aside, and we are paying the penalty for it.
Alfred North WhiteheadRead
We cannot grasp the true meaning of the divine holiness by thinking of someone or something very pure and then raising the concept to the highest degree we are capable of. God's holiness is not simply the best we know infinitely bettered. We know nothing like the divine holiness. It stands apart, unique, unapproachable, incomprehensible and unattainable. The natural man is blind to it. He may fear God's power and admire His wisdom, but His holiness he cannot even imagine.
Aiden Wilson TozerRead
In the act of worship itself, the experience of liberation becomes a constituent of the community's being . . . It is the power of God's Spirit invading the lives of the people, "building them up where they are torn down and propping them up on every leaning side".
James H. ConeRead
None of the modes by which a magistrate is appointed, popular election, the accident of the lot, or the accident of birth, affords, as far as we can perceive, much security for his being wiser than any of his neighbours. The chance of his being wiser than all his neighbours together is still smaller.
Thomas B. MacaulayRead
It’s a way of life to be always texting and when you looks at these texts it really is thoughts in formation. I do studies where I just sit for hours and hours at red lights watching people unable to tolerate being alone. Its as though being along has become a problem that needs to be solved and then technology presents itself as a solution to this problem…Being alone is not a problem that needs to be solved. The capacity for solitude is a very important human skill.
Sherry TurkleRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.