Each nationality contains its centre of happiness within itself, as a bullet the centre of gravity.
Johann Gottfried HerderRead
A poet is the creator of the nation around him, he gives them a world to see and has their souls in his hand to lead them to that world.
Interpretation
A poet shapes the identity and perspective of their culture through their creations.
This quote by Johann Gottfried Herder emphasizes the impactful role of a poet in society, suggesting that poets not only reflect the world around them but also actively contribute to shaping the consciousness and identity of their nation. By crafting beautiful and meaningful words, they lead society toward new ideas, visions, and understandings of the world, holding the collective spirit of the people in their artistry.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of art in education, one could use this quote to emphasize how poets influence culture.
Each nationality contains its centre of happiness within itself, as a bullet the centre of gravity.
So says the most ancient book of the Earth; thus it is written on its leaves of marble, lime, sand, slate, and clay: ... that our Earth has fashioned itself, from its chaos of substances and powers, through the animating warmth of the creative spirit, to a peculiar and original whole, by a series of preparatory revolutions, till at last the crown of its creation, the exquisite and tender creature man, was enabled to appear.
Thus we build on the ice, thus we write on the waves of the sea; the waves roaring pass away, the ice melts, and away goes our palace, like our thoughts.
The savage who loves himself, his wife and child with quiet joy and glows with limited activity of his tribe as for his own life is in my opinion a more real being than that cultivated shadow who is enraptured with the shadow of the whole species
Those that embrace the entire universe with love, for the most part love nothing, but their narrow selves.
Architecture is not just for the moment, it is not just for the next fashion magazine.
I didn’t know that painters and writers retired. They’re like soldiers – they just fade away.
Japanese chefs believe our soul goes into our knives once we start using them. You wouldn't put your soul in a dishwasher!
Someone said to me, early on in film school... if you can photograph the human face you can photograph anything, because that is the most difficult and most interesting thing to photograph.
Pictures aren't made out of doctrines. Since the appearance of impressionism, the official salons, which used to be brown, have become blue, green, and red...But peppermint or chocolate, they are still confections.
If you're going to perform inception, you need imagination. You need the simplest version of the idea-the one that will grow naturally in the subject's mind. Subtle art.
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