Compared to the unleashed forces of warfare and of faith, Mount Vesuvius was kinder to the legacy of antiquity.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the destructive power of war and belief systems compared to natural disasters like Mount Vesuvius.
In this quote, Stephen Greenblatt reflects on the impact of human conflict and ideology on the preservation of history and culture, suggesting that wars and fervent faith have caused more irrevocable damage to antiquity than even the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius. It underscores the idea that while nature can be catastrophic, human actions often carry a more profound and lasting effect on heritage and civilization.
In practice
In a lecture on the impact of warfare on history, one might quote Greenblatt to provoke thought about human conflict.
I've been at this for 40 years. And, as an academic, I've been content with relatively small audiences, with the thought that the audience I long for will find its way eventually to what I have written, provided that what I have written is good enough.
What I wanted to do was to get that sense of being in touch with this lost world while holding onto what draws readers and audiences there in the first place.
What matters here are the works - finally without them his life would be uninteresting. What matters, that is, are the astonishing things that he left behind. If we can get the life in relation to the works, then it can take off.
The exercise of reason is not available only to specialists; it is accessible to everyone.
The greatest obstacle to pleasure is not pain; it is delusion.
I believe in broken, fractured, complicated narratives, but I believe in narratives as a vehicle for truth, not simply as a form of entertainment, though I love entertainment, but also a way of conveying what needs to be conveyed about the works that I care about.
Justice is the loveliest and health is the best. but the sweetest to obtain is the heart's desire.
According to Greek mythology, humans were originally created with four arms, four legs and a head with two faces. Fearing their power, Zeus split them into two separate parts, condemning them to spend their lives in search of their other halves.
With all their faults, trade unions have done more for humanity than any other organization of men that ever existed. They have done more for decency, for honesty, for education, for the betterment of the race, for the developing of character in men, than any other association of men.
Western dictionaries define secularism as absence of religion but Indian secularism does not mean irreligiousness.It means profusion of religions.
Of this stamp is the cant of, Not men, but measures.
A man who has no office to go, to I don't care who he is, is a trial of which you can have no conception.
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