The anguish of the neurotic individual is the same as that of the saint. The neurotic, the saint are engaged in the same battle. Their blood flows from similar wounds. But the first one gasps and the other one gives.
Georges BatailleRead
I think that knowledge enslaves us, that at the base of all knowledge there is a servility, the acceptation of a way of life wherein each moment has meaning only in relation to another or others that will follow it.
Interpretation
Knowledge can confine us by creating a dependency on external validation and context.
In this quote, Georges Bataille expresses the idea that knowledge, rather than liberating us, can actually bind us in a servile relationship to time and societal expectations. He suggests that meaning is often derived from a linear progression where each moment is only significant in relation to those that come before or after, implying that this interconnectedness can inhibit true freedom and individuality.
In practice
This quote could be shared during a discussion on the limitations of formal education.
The anguish of the neurotic individual is the same as that of the saint. The neurotic, the saint are engaged in the same battle. Their blood flows from similar wounds. But the first one gasps and the other one gives.
A judgment about life has no meaning except the truth of the one who speaks last, and the mind is at ease only at the moment when everyone is shouting at once and no one can hear a thing.
I believe that truth has only one face: that of a violent contradiction.
What does physical eroticism signify if not a violation of the very being of its practitioners? – A violation bordering on death, bordering on murder?
It is clear that the world is purely parodic, that each thing seen is the parody of another, or is the same thing in a deceptive form.
Eroticism is assenting to life even in death.
Mythological symbols touch and exhilarate centers of life beyond the reach of vocabularies of reason and coercion.
Once we see an aspect of what we or someone else does as something that happens, we lose our grip on the idea that it has been done and that we can judge the doer and not just the happening.
For you all think God is one who rewards good and punishes evil, but I say to you that God is one who loves you and has compassion for everyone. You just have to pray to Him and believe in Him. He will always be your guiding light.
Cursed be the verse, how well so e'er it flow, That tends to make one worthy man my foe.
Are you scared?’ asked Mr. Ibis. ‘Not really.’ ‘Well, try to cultivate the emotions of true awe and spiritual terror, as we walk. They are the appropriate feelings for the situation at hand.
Our own grandchildren may demonstrate that-sometimes- Gigantic is Beautiful.
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