What is all Knowledge too but recorded Experience, and a product of History; of which, therefore, Reasoning and Belief, no less than Action and Passion, are essential materials?
Thomas CarlyleRead
Men seek for vocabularies that are reflections of reality. To this end, they must develop vocabularies that are selections of reality. And any selection of reality must, in certain circumstances, function as a deflection of reality.
Interpretation
The quote discusses how language shapes our perception of reality and indicates that our words can both reflect and distort it.
Kenneth Burke's quote suggests that men strive to create vocabularies that accurately represent their experiences and the world around them. However, he highlights that any chosen words or vocabulary can also serve to alter or deflect the true nature of reality, implying that language is not simply a mirror but also a filter that influences how we understand and interact with the world.
In practice
In a speech on the importance of clear communication in relationships.
What is all Knowledge too but recorded Experience, and a product of History; of which, therefore, Reasoning and Belief, no less than Action and Passion, are essential materials?
The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.
Time has three dimensions and one positive pitch or direction. It is therefore not so much like any river or any sea as like the Sea of Galilee, which has the Jordan running through it and giving a current to the whole.
If the greatest god is the stillness all the motions add up to, then we must ineluctably be included.
I have made a great discovery. I no longer believe in anything. Objects don't exist for me except in so far as a rapport exists between them and myself. When one attains this harmony, one reaches a sort of intellectual non-existence, what I can only describe as a sense of peace, which makes everything possible and right. Life then becomes a perpetual revelation. That is true poetry.
One of the hardest challenges posed by the modern world is how to deal with abundance. It's even harder to confront because admitting that it's a problem seems spoiled.
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