Surrealism will usher you into death, which is a secret society. It will glove your hand, burying therein the profound M with which the word Memory begins.
Andre BretonRead
Who am I? If this once I were to rely on a proverb, then perhaps everything would amount to knowing whom I 'haunt.'
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on self-identity and existential questioning, suggesting that one's understanding of self may be influenced by the impact one has on others.
In this quote, Andre Breton explores the nature of self-identity and how it is shaped by relationships and interactions with others. The idea of 'haunting' implies that our lives and identities are intertwined with those we affect and who affect us, prompting us to question not just who we are in isolation, but how we are defined by our connections and the marks we leave on the lives of others.
Themes
IdentitySelfExistenceRelationshipsPhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
During a philosophy class discussion on self-identity, this quote can be used to spark conversation.
More from Andre Breton
All quotes βThe mind, placed before any kind of difficulty, can find an ideal outlet in the absurd. Accommodation to the absurd readmits adults to the mysterious realm inhabited by children.
Andre BretonRead
Beauty is like a train that ceaselessly roars out of the Gare de Lyon and which I know will never leave, which has not left. It consists of jolts and shocks, many of which do not have much importance, but which we know are destined to produce one Shock, which does...The human heart, beautiful as a seismograph...Beauty will be CONVULSIVE or will not be at all.
Andre BretonRead
I maintain that anyone who still refuses to see, for instance, a horse galloping on a tomato, must be an idiot. A tomato is also a child's balloon - Surrealism, again, having suppressed the word "like."
Andre BretonRead
There is no use being alive if one must work. The event from which each of us is entitled to expect the revelation of his own lifeβs meaning - that event which I may not yet have found, but on whose path I seek myself - is not earned by work.
Andre BretonRead
Let us not mince words: the marvelous is always beautiful, anything marvelous is beautiful, in fact only the marvelous is beautiful.
Andre BretonRead
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