We are biological creatures. We are born, we live, we die. There is no transcendent purpose to existence. At best we are creatures of reason, and by using reason we can cure ourselves of emotional excess. Purged of both hope and fear, we find courage in the face of helplessness, insignificance and uncertainty.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the nature of human existence and emphasizes the importance of reason over emotional turmoil.
In this quote, Jonathan Sacks explores the essence of being human as biological beings bound by the cycles of life and death. He argues that existence lacks a transcendent purpose, suggesting that rather than being guided by emotional extremes such as hope and fear, individuals should use reason to navigate life's challenges. By doing so, one can confront the inherent helplessness and uncertainty of existence with courage, ultimately finding strength in acceptance of our insignificance.
In practice
In a speech on resilience during tough times.
Stabilizing the euro is one thing, healing the culture that surrounds it is another. A world in which material values are everything and spiritual values nothing is neither a stable state nor a good society. The time has come for us to recover the Judeo-Christian ethic of human dignity in the image of God.
Governments cannot make marriages or turn feckless individuals into responsible citizens. That needs another kind of change agent.
Jews read the books of Moses not just as history but as divine command. The question to which they are an answer is not, 'What happened?' but rather, 'How then shall I live?' And it's only with the exodus that the life of the commands really begins.
Why did God create mankind? Because God likes stories.
Find people not to envy but to admire. Do not the profitable but the admirable deed. Live by ideals.
Some years ago there was a study to discover the most stressful occupation. It turned out not to be the head of a large business, football manager or prime minister, but rather: bus driver.
Traditionalists are pessimists about the future and optimists about the past.
I heartily accept the motto, "That government is best which governs least"; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe — "That government is best which governs not at all"; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have. Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient.
Sometime I’ll lay down my wrath, As I lay my body down Between the ache of breath and breath, Golden slumber in the bone.
Blind hate against the enemy creates a forceful impulse that cracks the boundaries of natural human limitations, transforming the soldier in an effective, selective and cold killing machine. A people without hate cannot triumph against the adversary.
The present urgency is to begin thinking within the context of the whole planet, the integral earth community with all its human and other-than-human components.
Man makes holy what he believes as he makes beautiful what he loves.
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