An extravagance is something that your spirit thinks is a necessity.
Bernard WilliamsRead
If there's one theme in all my work, it's about authenticity and self-expression. It's the idea that some things are, in some real sense, really you - or express what you and others aren't.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of being true to oneself and expressing one's genuine identity.
In this quote, Bernard Williams highlights the significance of authenticity and self-expression in one's work. He suggests that true art or expression reflects a person's real self, conveying elements that resonate deeply with the individual while potentially revealing aspects that may be hidden in others. This pursuit of authenticity is essential not only in art but in any form of personal expression.
Themes
AuthenticitySelf-ExpressionIdentityArtGenuineness
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion on creativity at a conference, you might use this quote to emphasize the importance of originality.
More from Bernard Williams
All quotes βThere was never a night or a problem that could defeat sunrise or hope.
Bernard WilliamsRead
Contemporary moral philosophy has found an original way of being boring, which is by not discussing moral issues at all.
Bernard WilliamsRead
The majority of philosophers are totally humorless. That's part of their trouble.
Bernard WilliamsRead
People have been predicting the death of philosophy since the 17th century. When I was a student, people were saying, 'We're in the last days of philosophy.' Then we were told in the '60s it would be replaced by sociology, then by literary criticism.
Bernard WilliamsRead
Virtually the only subject in which one could ever get a scholarship to Oxford or Cambridge was classics. So I went to Oxford to study classics and, unlike Cambridge, it had a philosophy component, and I became completely transported by it.
Bernard WilliamsRead
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Muse of the many twinkling feet, whose charms are now extending up from legs to arms.
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I'm a storyteller who wants to tell untold, meaningful, universal stories in unforgettable ways. I want to do it all, study it all, and find my place in it.
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Aestheticism is a search after the signs of the beautiful. It is the science of the beautiful through which men seek the correlation of the arts. It is, to speak more exactly, the search after the secret of life.
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Beauty cannot be recognized with a cursory glance.
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I wake up every morning, and I go to ballet class no matter what's going on the night before. That's my priority, and that's what makes me feel sane and not removed from the realities of my world.
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