On rare occasions one does hear of a miraculous case of a married couple falling in love after marriage, but on close examination it will be found that it is a mere adjustment to the inevitable.
Emma GoldmanRead
'What I believe' is a process rather than a finality. Finalities are for gods and governments, not for the human intellect.
Interpretation
Beliefs are not fixed; they evolve and change over time as we grow and learn.
Emma Goldman's quote emphasizes the dynamic nature of human beliefs, suggesting that understanding and conviction are not absolute but rather an ongoing journey of discovery and questioning. By contrasting human intellect with the finalities of gods and governments, she implies that true understanding is flexible and subject to change, reflecting the complexities of life and individual experience.
In practice
During a philosophy class discussion about the nature of belief.
On rare occasions one does hear of a miraculous case of a married couple falling in love after marriage, but on close examination it will be found that it is a mere adjustment to the inevitable.
No one has yet realized the wealth of sympathy, the kindness and generosity hidden in the soul of a child. The effort of every true education should be to unlock that treasure.
To the indefinite, uncertain mind of the American radical the most contradictory ideas and methods are possible. The result is a sad chaos in the radical movement, a sort of intellectual hash, which has neither taste nor character.
John Burroughs has stated that experimental study of animals in captivity is absolutely useless. Their character, their habits, their appetites undergo a complete transformation when torn from their soil in field and forest. With human nature caged in a narrow space, whipped daily into submission, how can we speak of its potentialities?
Anarchism is the only philosophy which brings to man the consciousness of himself; which maintains that God, the State, and society are non-existent, that their promises are null and void, since they can be fulfilled only through man's subordination.
If love does not know how to give and take without restrictions, it is not love, but a transaction that never fails to lay stress on a plus and a minus.
Fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement: he is a rebel who must lay down his arms.
Darkness is drawn to light, but light does not know it; light must absorb the darkness and therefore meet its own extinguishment.
What comes will also go. What always is will alone remain.
Death is a release from the impressions of the senses, and from desires that make us their puppets, and from the vagaries of the mind, and from the hard service of the flesh.
For a long time I was convinced that the conflict between Jewish people and black people in this country was a media event.
Many heroes lived before Agamemnon; but all are unknown and unwept, extinguished in everlasting night, because they have no spirited chronicler.
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