Like the collector, the photographer is animated by a passion that, even when it appears to be for the present, is linked to a sense of the past.
Susan SontagRead
The becoming of man is the history of the exhaustion of his possibilities.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that as humans grow and evolve, they deplete their potential and options over time.
Susan Sontag's quote reflects on the trajectory of human existence, positing that the journey of becoming a fully realized person is intertwined with the gradual exhaustivity of our choices and possibilities. It suggests that with each decision we make or each path we take, we are limiting ourselves to certain outcomes while simultaneously exploring and realizing our true potential. The history of a person's life, then, is not just a chronicle of achievements but also a reflection on the paths not taken and the potential that fades as we age and grow.
Themes
PossibilitiesHistoryManExhaustionPotential
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about personal growth and choices.
More from Susan Sontag
All quotes βScience fiction films are not about science. They are about disaster, which is one of the oldest subjects of art.
Susan SontagRead
Gide and I have attained such perfect intellectual communion that I experience the appropriate labor pains for every thought he gives birth to!
Susan SontagRead
Volume depends precisely on the writer's having been able to sit in a room every day, year after year, alone.
Susan SontagRead
In NY sensuality completely turns into sexuality - no objects for the senses to respond to, no beautiful river, houses, people. Awful smells of the street, and dirt... Nothing except eating, if that, and the frenzy of the bed.
Susan SontagRead
It hurts to love. It's like giving yourself to be flayed and knowing that at any moment the other person may just walk off with your skin.
Susan SontagRead
Similar quotes
Who do I belong to? How come I mortgaged my being till I don't belong to myself? How come I sold my blood? And who now owns my indecisions, my hands, my private pain, my pride?
Pablo NerudaRead
There is a single main definition of the object of all magical Ritual. It is the uniting of the Microcosm with the Macrocosm. The Supreme and Complete Ritual is therefore the Invocation of the Holy Guardian Angel; or, in the language of Mysticism, Union with God.
Aleister CrowleyRead
There lies at the back of every creed something terrible and hard for which the worshipper may one day be required to suffer.
E. M. ForsterRead
When people complain of life, it is almost always because they have asked impossible things of it.
Ernest RenanRead
You don't need a Harvard MBA to know that the bedroom and the boardroom are just two sides of the same ballgame.
Stephen FryRead
Speaking psycho-analytically, it may be laid down that any "great ideal" which people mention with awe is really an excuse for inflicting pain on their enemies. Good wine needs no bush, and good morals need no bated breath.
Bertrand RussellRead