All the world knows me in my book, and my book in me.
Michel De MontaigneRead
Wonder is the foundation of all philosophy, inquiry the progress, ignorance the end.
Interpretation
Wonder inspires philosophical thought, inquiry leads to knowledge, and ignorance halts understanding.
This quote by Michel De Montaigne emphasizes the journey of knowledge and understanding. It suggests that the initial spark of curiosity or wonder is what drives philosophical inquiry, which then progresses toward understanding and learning. However, if one remains ignorant and does not engage in questioning and exploring, they will never reach a deeper comprehension of life and existence.
In practice
During a philosophy class discussion, this quote can be used to highlight the importance of inquiry in learning.
All the world knows me in my book, and my book in me.
All I say is by way of discourse, and nothing by way of advice. I should not speak so boldly if it were my due to be believed.
Pythagoras used to say that life resembles the Olympic Games: a few people strain their muscles to carry off a prize; others bring trinkets to sell to the crowd for gain; and some there are, and not the worst, who seek no other profit than to look at the show and see how and why everything is done; spectators of the life of other people in order to judge and regulate their own.
There is not much less vexation in the government of a private family than in the managing of an entire state.
Those who have compared our life to a dream were right... we were sleeping wake, and waking sleep.
Such as are in immediate fear of a losing their estates, of banishment, or of slavery, live in perpetual anguish, and lose all appetite and repose; whereas such as are actually poor, slaves, or exiles, ofttimes live as merrily as other folk.
It seems that the whole world is beginning to decay, and that its putrefaction has chosen to spread outward from here, from the land of the Pashtuns, where desertification proceeds at a steady, implacable crawl even in the consciences and intellects of men.
After the war people said, 'If you can plan for war, why can't you plan for peace?' When I was 17, I had a letter from the government saying, 'Dear Mr. Benn, will you turn up when you're 17 1/2? We'll give you free food, free clothes, free training, free accommodation, and two shillings, ten pence a day to just kill Germans.' People said, well, if you can have full employment to kill people, why in God's name couldn't you have full employment and good schools, good hospitals, good houses?
We commonly say in the trade that the most dangerous animal in a zoo is Man.
Remember, the Internet did not create freedom of speech; in theory, we always had freedom of speech - it's just that it often went along with the freedom to be ignored. People had no access to the infrastructure to be heard.
Society: an inferno of saviors!
What was Aristotleβs life?β Well, the answer lay in a single sentence: βHe was born, he thought, he died.β And all the rest is pure anecdote.
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