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.
Interpretation
The value of a person's life is reflected in their contributions and achievements rather than their existence alone.
In this quote, Stephen Greenblatt emphasizes that a person's legacy and the impact they leave behind through their works are what truly define their life. He suggests that without these remarkable contributions, life can seem dull or unremarkable, and that by appreciating the relationship between life and works, we can fully honor and understand someone's existence.
In practice
During a commencement speech, one could use this quote to emphasize the importance of striving for meaningful achievements in life.
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.
The exercise of reason is not available only to specialists; it is accessible to everyone.
Compared to the unleashed forces of warfare and of faith, Mount Vesuvius was kinder to the legacy of antiquity.
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.
In a world without future, each moment is the end of the world.
I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I think it is much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers that might be wrong. If we will only allow that, as we progress, we remain unsure, we will leave opportunities for alternatives. We will not become enthusiastic for the fact, the knowledge, the absolute truth of the day, but remain always uncertain β¦ In order to make progress, one must leave the door to the unknown ajar.
If you have not discovered something you are willing to die for, then you are not fit to live.
One never reaches home, but wherever friendly paths intersect the whole world looks like home for a time.
That we must all die, we always knew, I wish I had sooner remembred it.
It's clearly more important to treat one's fellow man well than to be always praying and fasting and touching one's head to a prayer mat.
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