No machines will ever truly fully figure the brain out, because the brain's performance is constantly altered or else constrained by this inanimate, rogue artifact you can't control, namely, speech.
Tom WolfeRead
I had always looked down on sociology as this arriviste discipline. It didn't have the noble history of English and history as a subject. But once I had a little exposure to it, I said, 'Hey, here's the key. Here's the key to understanding life and all its forms.'
Interpretation
What this quote means
Sociology, once dismissed by the speaker, is revealed to be essential for comprehending life in its entirety.
In this quote, Tom Wolfe reflects on his initial disdain for sociology, viewing it as a lesser discipline compared to established fields like English and history. However, after gaining exposure to sociology, he discovers its profound significance in unlocking the complexities of life and understanding human behavior, ultimately recognizing it as a crucial tool for grasping the diverse forms of existence.
Themes
SociologyUnderstandingLifeHuman BehaviorDiscipline
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture on the importance of social sciences, one might use this quote to emphasize sociology's value.
More from Tom Wolfe
All quotes →And - of course! - the Non-people. The whole freaking world was full of people who were bound to tell you they weren't qualified to do this or that but they were determined to go ahead and do just that thing anyway.
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The whole conviction of my life now rests upon the belief that loneliness, far from being a rare and curious phenomenon, peculiar to myself and to a few other solitary men, is the central and inevitable fact of human existence.
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Driving a stock car does not require much handling ability, at least not as compared to Grand Prix racing, because the tracks are simple banked ovals and there is almost no shifting of gears. So, qualifying becomes a test of raw nerve - of how fast a man is willing to take a curve.
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I have discovered that for me - now, maybe it doesn't work for everybody - for me, it is much more effective to arrive at any situation as a man from Mars than to try to fit in.
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There has been a time on earth when poets had been young and dead and famous - and were men. But now the poet as the tragic child of grandeur and destiny had changed. The child of genius was a woman, now, and the man was gone.
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