The weakness of ourselves and of our reason makes us see flaws in beauties by making us consider everything piece by piece.
Interpretation
Our own limitations can lead us to focus on imperfections rather than appreciating the whole.
This quote by Johann Georg Hamann suggests that our inherent weaknesses and the limitations of our reasoning abilities often cause us to overlook the beauty in things. Instead of seeing the complete and harmonious picture, we tend to dissect and critiquely analyze every single part, which can obscure our appreciation for the overall beauty that exists in life.
In practice
In a speech about embracing imperfections in art and life.
Being, belief and reason are pure relations, which cannot be dealt with absolutely, and are not things but pure scholastic concepts, signs for understanding, not for worshipping, aids to awaken our attention, not to fetter it.
Nature is a book, a letter, a fairy tale (in the philosophical sense) or whatever you want to call it.
The product of paper and printed ink, that we commonly call the book, is one of the great visible mediators between spirit and time, and, reflecting zeitgeist, lasts as long as ore and stone.
Every phenomenon of nature was a word, - the sign, symbol and pledge of a new, mysterious, inexpressible but all the more intimate union, participation and community of divine energies and ideas.
Everything is vain and tortures the spirit instead of calming and satisfying it.
Not only the entire ability to think rests on language... but language is also the crux of the misunderstanding of reason with itself.
According to my definition of God, I'm not an atheist. Because I think God is everything. Whenever I open my eyes, I'm looking at God. Whenever I'm listening to something, I'm listening to God.
Opinion is like a pendulum and obeys the same law. If it goes past the centre of gravity on one side, it must go a like distance on the other; and it is only after a certain time that it finds the true point at which it can remain at rest.
There is no repose for the mind except in the absolute; for feeling, except in the infinite; for the soul, except in the divine.
Behind the hieroglyphic streets there would either be a transcendent meaning, or only the earth.
I felt we must separate political responsibility. The Dalai Lama should not carry that burden. So that is my selfish reason - to protect the old Dalai Lama tradition. It is safer without political involvement.
All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance.
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