Love consists in leaving the loved one space to be themselves while providing the security within which that self may flourish.
Tony JudtRead
I'm not sure I've learned anything new about life; but I've had to think harder about death and what comes after for other people.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the insights gained from contemplating death and its impact on understanding life.
In this quote, Tony Judt expresses a profound realization that while he may not have discovered new facts about life, the experience of contemplating death and its implications for others has deepened his understanding. This reflection prompts a more profound engagement with the themes of existence, mortality, and the value of life itself, suggesting that the awareness of death can lead to a richer appreciation of lifeβs complexities.
In practice
In a discussion about life's challenges, this quote can highlight the importance of reflecting on mortality.
Love consists in leaving the loved one space to be themselves while providing the security within which that self may flourish.
If active or concerned citizens forfeit politics, they thereby abandon their society to its most mediocre and venal public servants
Obviously a primary liberal conviction is that we should be tolerant of other peoples' convictions. But if we believe in something, we had better find ways to say so convincingly.
Social democracy does not represent an ideal future; it does not even represent the ideal past.
What I am against is false optimism: the notion either that things have to go well, or else that they tend to, or else that the default condition of historical trajectories is characteristically beneficial in the long-run.
We are not merely historians but also and always citizens.
Voidness is that which stands right in the middle between this and that. The void is all-inclusive, having no opposite--there is nothing which it excludes or opposes. It is living void, because all forms come out of it and whoever realizes the void is filled with life and power and the love of all beings.
No one's death comes to pass without making some impression, and those close to the deceased inherit part of the liberated soul and become richer in their humanness.
If you lack the iron and the fizz to take control of your own life, then the gods will repay your weakness by having a grin or two at your expense. Should you fail to pilot your own ship, don't be surprised at what inappropriate port you find yourself docked.
All around us, aspects of the modern world - diet, exercise, medicine, art, work, family, philosophy, economics, ecology, psychology - have begun a long circle back toward their former coherence. Whether they can arrive before the natural world is damaged beyond repair and madness destroys humanity, we cannot tell.
Conversation is a meeting of minds with different memories and habits. When minds meet, they don't just exchange facts: they transform them, reshape them, draw different implications from them, engage in new trains of thought. Conversation doesn't just reshuffle the cards: it creates new cards.
Do I dare Disturb the universe? In a minute there is time For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.
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