My alma mater is the Chicago Public Library. I got what little educational foundation I got in the third-floor reading room, under the tutelage of a Coca-Cola sign.
David MametRead
They say you can't study Kabbalah until you are at least 40 years old. You know why? You have to have experienced at least one generation making the same mistakes as the previous one.
Interpretation
Experience is essential for understanding deep subjects like Kabbalah.
David Mamet's quote reflects the idea that wisdom and understanding often come from experience. He suggests that one must live through a generation's worth of mistakes to truly grasp the complexities of topics like Kabbalah, indicating that personal and generational experiences shape our understanding of profound subjects.
In practice
A speaker at a spiritual retreat discussing the importance of life experiences in understanding religious texts.
My alma mater is the Chicago Public Library. I got what little educational foundation I got in the third-floor reading room, under the tutelage of a Coca-Cola sign.
You know, young actors say all the time, 'Should I use my own life experience?' And my response is, 'What choice do you have?'
It's hard for a Jew of my generation, an American Jew, who is philo-Zionistic, not to romanticize Israel.
You can't write about history without writing about politics at some point. History is about movements of people. 'What is criminality and what is government' is a theme that runs through every history.
Every reiteration of the idea that nothing matters debases the human spirit.
The subject of drama is The Lie. At the end of the drama THE TRUTH -- which has been overlooked, disregarded, scorned, and denied -- prevails. And that is how we know the Drama is done.
I hate pain, despite my ability to tolerate it beyond all known parameters, which is not necessarily a good thing.
We are Physical, Mental and Spiritual beings. If you don't deal with ALL OF LIFE you're not going to get all that life has to offer.
Work is and always has been my salvation and I thank the Lord for it.
For even the very wise cannot see all ends.
A great burden was lifted from my shoulders the day I realized that no one owes me anything.
Knowledge is like a knife. In the hands of a well-balanced adult it is an instrument for good of inestimable value; but in the hands of a child, an idiot, a criminal, a drunkard or an insane man, it may cause havoc, misery, suffering and crime. Science and religion have this in common, that their noble aims, their power for good, have often, with wrong men, deteriorated into a boomerang to the human race.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.