Utopias now appear much more realizable than one used to think. We are now faced with a different new worry: How to prevent their realization.
Nikolai BerdyaevRead
The Russian yearning for the meaning of life is the major theme of our literature, and this is the real point of our intelligentsia's existence.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quest for life's meaning is central to Russian literature and the purpose of its intellectuals.
In this quote, Nikolai Berdyaev highlights the deep-seated pursuit of understanding life's meaning within Russian literature, suggesting that this quest serves as a fundamental aspect of the intellectual community's purpose. It emphasizes the importance of philosophical inquiry and reflection on existence as pivotal themes in the cultural and literary landscape of Russia.
Themes
MeaningLifeLiteratureIntelligentsiaPhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the themes of Russian novels, one might quote Berdyaev to emphasize the literary focus on existential questions.
More from Nikolai Berdyaev
All quotes βFreedom is the power to create out of nothing, the power of the spirit to create out of itself.
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There is a tragic clash between Truth and the world. Pure undistorted truth burns up the world.
Nikolai BerdyaevRead
God is a reality of spirit He cannot be conceived as an object, not even as the very highest object. God is not to be found in the world of objects.
Nikolai BerdyaevRead
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Hours of solitude, hours of creation, hours of meditation. Solitude and meditation gave me an awareness, a perspective which I have never lost: that of solidarity with the rest of mankind.
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I have resolved on an enterprise that has no precedent and will have no imitator. I want to set before my fellow human beings a man in every way true to nature; and that man will be myself.
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Human freedom involves our capacity to pause between the stimulus and response and, in that pause, to choose the one response toward which we wish to throw our weight. The capacity to create ourselves, based upon this freedom, is inseparable from consciousness or self-awareness. (p. 100)
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