The gods are fugitive guests of literature.
Roberto CalassoRead
Whatever else it might be, the divine is certainly the thing that imposes with maximum intensity the sensation of being alive.
Interpretation
The divine enhances the profound experience of life.
This quote by Roberto Calasso suggests that the concept of the divine brings a heightened awareness and intensity to our experience of being alive. It indicates that regardless of how one interprets the divine, it serves as a powerful force that amplifies our feelings and sensations, making life feel more vivid and meaningful.
In practice
This quote could be used in a discussion about spirituality and its role in everyday life.
The gods are fugitive guests of literature.
We establish a connection with the unknown through the act of giving something and, paradoxically, the act of destroying something. That is what is behind sacrifice. What you offer and what you destroy, it is that surplus which is life itself.
Myth is never a single story. It is always a tree with many branches.
Stories never live alone; They are the branches of a family that we have to trace back, and forward.
The monster does not need the hero. it is the hero who needs him for his very existence. When the hero confronts the monster, he has yet neither power nor knowledge, the monster is his secret father who will invest him with a power and knowledge that can belong to one man only, and that only the monster can give.
It was that which gave promise that in due time the weights should be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all should have an equal chance. This is the sentiment embodied in that Declaration of Independence.
We had been hopelessly labouring to plough waste lands; to make nationality grow in a place full of the certainty of Godβ¦ Among the tribes our creed could be only like the desert grass β a beautiful swift seeming of spring; which, after a dayβs heat, fell dusty.
Forget not, never forget that you have promised me to use this silver to become an honest man.... Jean Valjean, my brother: you belong no longer to evil, but to good. It is your soul that I am buying for you. I withdraw it from dark thoughts and from the spirit of perdition, and I give it to God!
Winning and losing, that's never been my objective. It's my hope that in the fullness of time, the majority of the court will come to see things as I do.
Something in the world forces us to think. This something is an object not of recognition but of a fundamental encounter.
He who goes unenvied shall not be admired.
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