He who learns death unlearns slavery.
Interpretation
Understanding death liberates one from the fear of oppression and servitude.
This quote by Cornel West suggests that gaining insight into the nature of death allows individuals to free themselves from the psychological bondage of slavery, which he can interpret as both literal and metaphorical. By confronting and comprehending the inevitability of death, a person can transcend the constraints imposed by society, thus achieving a profound sense of freedom and self-awareness.
In practice
In a discussion on overcoming oppressive systems.
King's response to our crisis can be put in one word: revolution. A revolution in our priorities, a reevaluation of our values, a reinvigoration of our public life and a fundamental transformation of our way of thinking and living that promotes a transfer of power from oligarchs and plutocrats to everyday people and ordinary citizens.
You've got to love yourself enough, not only so that others will be able to love you, but that you'll be able to love others.
Profound music leads us beyond language...to the dark roots of our scream and the celestial heights of our silence.
And when I talk about love, I'm talking about something that's great, though, brother. I'm talking about something that will sustain you.
Clever gimmicks of mass distraction yield a cheap soulcraft of addicted and self-medicated narcissists.
I feel as if I have been blessed to undergo a transformation from 'gangster' to 'redeemed sinner with gangster proclivities.'
Far from being the smartest possible biological species, we are probably better thought of as the stupidest possible biological species capable of starting a technological civilization - a niche we filled because we got there first, not because we are in any sense optimally adapted to it.
I hear the ruin of all space, shattered glass and toppled masonry, and time one livid final flame.
The ulterior motives with which you absorb and assimilate Evil are not your own but those of Evil. _x000D_ The animal wrests the whip from its master and whips itself in order to become master, not knowing that this is only a fantasy produced by a new knot in the master's whiplash.
I've been homesick for countries I've never been, and longed to be where I couldn't be.
The difficulty is to try and teach the multitude that something can be true and untrue at the same time.
The essence of life is statistical improbability on a colossal scale.
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