For the first time in human evolution, the individual life is long enough, and the cultural transformation swift enough, that the individual mind is now a constituent player in the global transformation of human culture.
William Irwin ThompsonRead
That shoreline where the island of knowing meets the unfathomable sea of our own being is the landscape of myth.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote explores the intersection of knowledge and the mysterious aspects of existence.
William Irwin Thompson's quote suggests that the journey of understanding oneself and the deeper truths of life resembles a mythic landscape. It emphasizes that the pursuit of knowledge is not just about facts, but also about grappling with the profound and often unknowable nature of our existence, akin to navigating a vast sea filled with mystery.
Themes
KnowledgeExistenceMythSeaSelf-Discovery
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture about the nature of consciousness, this quote can highlight the complexity of self-awareness.
More from William Irwin Thompson
All quotes →If humans died in a healthy culture, they would not lock out the earth in metal coffins and carve their names on stone monuments, but would instead place the naked body in the earth and plant a tree above the silent heart.
William Irwin ThompsonRead
Like a shadow that does not permit us to jump over it, but moves with us to maintain its proper distance, pollution is nature's answer to culture. When we have learned to recycle pollution into potent information, we will have passed over completely into the new cultural ecology.
William Irwin ThompsonRead
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