Much as I have no wish to hurt anyone's feelings, my first obligation has not been to be nice but to be true to my perhaps peculiar memories, experiences and feelings.
Interpretation
Being true to oneself takes precedence over pleasing others.
In this quote, Edward Said emphasizes the importance of authenticity over conforming to societal expectations. He acknowledges that while he wishes to avoid hurting others' feelings, his primary responsibility is to remain true to his own memories and experiences, highlighting the value of personal truth over the superficiality of niceness.
In practice
In a graduation speech about self-discovery and authenticity.
All knowledge that is about human society, and not about the natural world, is historical knowledge, and therefore rests upon judgment and interpretation. This is not to say that facts or data are nonexistent, but that facts get their importance from what is made of them in interpretation… for interpretations depend very much on who the interpreter is, who he or she is addressing, what his or her purpose is, at what historical moment the interpretation takes place.
Uninformed and yet open to appeals for justice as they are, Americans are capable of reacting as they did to the ANC campaign against apartheid, which finally changed the balance of forces inside South Africa.
Refuse to allow yourself to become a vegetable that simply absorbs information, pre-packaged, pre-ideologized , because no message.. is anything but an ideological package that has gone through a kind of processing.
Since the time of Homer every European, in what he could say about the Orient, was a racist, an imperialist, and almost totally ethnocentric.
It is quite common to hear high officials in Washington and elsewhere speak of changing the map of the Middle East, as if ancient societies and myriad peoples can be shaken up like so many peanuts in a jar.
Theory is taught so as to make the student believe that he or she can become a Marxist, a feminist, an Afrocentrist, or a deconstructionist with about the same effort and commitment required in choosing items from a menu.
... success or failure, the truth of a life really has little to do with its quality. The quality of life is in proportion, always, to the capacity for delight. The capacity for delight is the gift of paying attention.
You cannot invent an algorithm that is as good at recommending books as a good bookseller, and that's the secret weapon of the bookstore - is that no algorithm will ever understand readers the way that other readers can understand readers.
When we develop reverence for food and the miracle of transformation inherent in it, just the simple act of eating creates a ritual of celebration.
One act of obedience is better than one hundred sermons.
Lasting fulfillment is attained only through gaining insight into the core of our human nature, unleashing the power to understand, appreciate, and enjoy our lives at the deepest level.
Always remember that others may hate you but those who hate you don't win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself.
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