Truth is one, but error proliferates. Man tracks it down and cuts it up into little pieces hoping to turn it into grains of truth. But the ultimate atom will always essentially be an error, a miscalculation.
Rene DaumalRead
It is still not enough for language to have clarity and content... it must also have a goal and an imperative. Otherwise from language we descend to chatter, from chatter to babble and from babble to confusion.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Language must be purposeful and clear to avoid confusion and meaningless chatter.
Rene Daumal emphasizes that effective communication requires not just clarity and substance, but also direction and intention. Without a clear goal, language can devolve into meaningless conversation, leading to misunderstanding and chaos. This highlights the importance of purposeful expression in meaningful dialogue.
Themes
LanguageCommunicationClarityPurposeMeaning
In practice
Example use cases
In a workshop on effective communication, this quote could illustrate the necessity of having clear goals in discussions.
More from Rene Daumal
All quotes →In the mythic tradition, the Mountain is the bond between Earth and Sky. Its solitary summit reaches the sphere of eternity, and its base spreads out in manifold foothills into the world of mortals. It is the way by which man can raise himself to the divine and by which the divine can reveal itself to man.
Rene DaumalRead
The door to the invisible must be visible.
Rene DaumalRead
I am dead because I have no desire,_x000D_ I have no desire because I think I possess,_x000D_ I think I possess because I do not try to give;_x000D_ Trying to give, we see that we have nothing;_x000D_ Seeing that we have nothing, we try to give ourselves,_x000D_ Trying to give ourselves, we see that we are nothing,_x000D_ Seeing that we are nothing, we desire to become,_x000D_ Desiring to become, we live.
Rene DaumalRead
Art has a double face, of expression and illusion, just like science has a double face: the reality of error and the phantom of truth.
Rene DaumalRead
Common experience is the gold reserve which confers an exchange value on the currency which words are; without this reserve of shared experiences, all our pronouncements are checks drawn on insufficient funds.
Rene DaumalRead
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