My principal motive is the belief that we can still make admirable sense of our lives even if we cease to have... an ambition of transcendence.
Richard RortyRead
I now wish that I had spent somewhat more of my life with verse. This is not because I fear having missed out on truths that are incapable of statement in prose. There are no such truths; there is nothing about death that Swinburne and Landor knew but Epicurus and Heidegger failed to grasp. Rather, it is because I would have lived more fully if I had been able to rattle off more old chestnuts — just as I would have if I had made more close friends.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the value of poetry and intimate relationships in enriching one's life experience.
Richard Rorty expresses a longing for having spent more of his life immersed in poetry, suggesting that such an experience would deepen one's understanding of life and enhance the quality of one's existence. He asserts that the truths of life are not exclusive to prose but can be captured through verse, and emphasizes that a fuller life often includes meaningful relationships and shared experiences, much like engaging with poetry.
Themes
PoetryLifeFriendshipExperienceTruths
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech about the importance of creativity, one might reference this quote to emphasize the value of artistic expression.
More from Richard Rorty
All quotes →To say that truth is not out there is simply to say that where there are no sentences there is no truth, that sentences are elements of human languages, and that languages are human creations.~ The suggestion that truth~ is out there is a legacy of an age in which the world was seen as the creation of a being who had a language his own.
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The world does not speak. Only we do. The world can, once we have programmed ourselves with a language, cause us to hold beliefs. But it cannot propose a language for us to speak. Only other human beings can do that.
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Philosophy makes progress not by becoming more rigorous but by becoming more imaginative.
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National pride is to countries what self-respect is to individuals: a necessary condition for self-improvement.
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A talent for speaking differently, rather than for arguing well is the chief instrument of cultural change.
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