The torrent of centuries rolling over the human race, has continually brought new perfections, the cause of which, ever active though unseen, is found in the demands made by our senses, which always in their turns demand to be occupied.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that the progression of humanity is driven by sensory demands that evolve over time.
Brillat-Savarin highlights the continuous evolution of human perfection influenced by the changing demands of our senses. He implies that as society progresses through time, these sensory needs shape developments that are often invisible yet fundamental to our growth.
In practice
In a lecture on human development, one might reference this quote to illustrate the impact of evolving needs on societal progress.
It has been shown as proof positive that carefully prepared chocolate is as healthful a food as it is pleasant; that it is nourishing and easily digested... that it is above all helpful to people who must do a great deal of mental work.
The limits of pleasure are as yet neither known nor fixed, and that we have no idea what degree of bodily bliss we are capable of attaining.
Place a substantial meal before a tired man and he will eat with effort and be little better for it at first. Give him a glass of wine or brandy, and immediately he feels better: you see him come to life again before you.
Gourmandism is an act of judgment, by which we prefer things which have a pleasant taste to those which lack this quality.
In the hands of an able cook, fish can become an inexhaustible source of perpetual delight.
You first parents of the human race...who ruined yourself for an apple, what might you have done for a truffled turkey?
In the past, men created witches: now they create mental patients.
During a chess tournament a master must envisage himself as a cross between an ascetic monk and a beast of prey.
You may bury my body down by the highway side. So my old evil spirit can catch a Greyhound bus and ride.
To demand that a person pee in a cup whenever you wish him to, without a documented reason to suspect that he has been using an illegal drug, is intolerable in our republic. You are saying to him, "I wonder if you are not behaving in a way that I approve of. Convince me that you indeed are. Outrageous. Intolerable.
And Death spoke to them —’” “Sorry,” interjected Harry, “but Death spoke to them?” “It’s a fairy tale, Harry!” “Right, sorry. Go on.
Those oft are stratagems which errors seem Nor is it Homer nods, but we that dream.
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