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 βIf 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
Similar quotes
If I be worthy, I live for my God to teach the heathen, even though they may despise me.
Saint PatrickRead
O youth or young man, who fancy that you are neglected by the gods, know that if you become worse, you shall go to worse souls, or if better to the better... In every succession of life and death, you will do and suffer what like may fitly suffer at the hands of like. This is the justice of heaven.
PlatoRead
It is easy to say that there are the rich and the poor, and so something should be done. But in history, there are always the rich and the poor. If the poor were not as poor, we would still call them the poor. I mean, whoever has less can be called the poor. You will always have the 10% that have less and the 10% that have the most.
John Forbes Nash, Jr.Read
The Church's foundation is unshakable and firm against the assaults of the raging sea. Waves lash at the Church but do not shatter it. Although the elements of this world constantly batter and crash against her, she offers the safest harbor of salvation for all in distress.
AmbroseRead
Nothing living should ever be treated with contempt. Whatever it is that lives, a man, a tree, or a bird, should be touched gently, because the time is short. Civilization is another word for respect for life.
Elizabeth GoudgeRead
I have spent a lot of my career working on normative political philosophy, developing the 'capabilities approach' to social justice. I have also spent a lot of my career working on the structure of the emotions, and their role in human life.
Martha NussbaumRead