Controlled hysteria is what's required. To exist constantly in a state of controlled hysteria. It's agony. But everyone has agony. The difference is that I try to take my agony home and teach it to sing.
Arthur MillerRead
The task of the real intellectual consists of analyzing illusions in order to discover their causes.
Interpretation
Real intellectuals critically examine false beliefs to understand their origins.
This quote by Arthur Miller emphasizes the role of intellectuals in society as those who critically analyze and deconstruct commonly held illusions or misconceptions. By uncovering the underlying causes of these illusions, they provide deeper insights and understanding of the human experience, ultimately fostering greater knowledge and awareness in both themselves and others.
In practice
In a lecture on critical thinking, this quote can be used to illustrate the importance of questioning commonly accepted ideas.
Controlled hysteria is what's required. To exist constantly in a state of controlled hysteria. It's agony. But everyone has agony. The difference is that I try to take my agony home and teach it to sing.
The word "now" is like a bomb through the window, and it ticks.
Amos Oz is one of the finest novelists of this entire period. MY MICHAEL is a beautiful work of great depth and in some indescribable way lingers in the mind as a lyric song to his country's people as much as a moving love story.
Just remember, kid, you can quicker get back a million dollars that was stole than a word that you gave away.
Oh,Elizabeth, your justice would freeze beer.
The structure of a play is always the story of how the birds came home to roost.
The idea of cultural relativism is nothing but an excuse to violate human rights.
Death is not a foe, but an inevitable adventure.
Philosophers play with the word, like a child with a doll.... It does not mean that everything in life is relative.
The minute you or anybody else knows what you are you are not it, you are what you or anybody else knows you are and as everything in living is made up of finding out what you are it is extraordinarily difficult really not to know what you are and yet to be that thing.
While photographs may not lie, liars may photograph.
The Federal Constitution forms a happy combination in this respect; the great and aggregate interests being referred to the national, the local and particular, to the state legislatures.
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