Is not the most erotic part of the body wherever the clothing affords a glimpse?
Roland BarthesRead
I am simultaneously and contradictorily both happy and unhappy: 'to succeed' or 'to fail' have for me only ephemeral, contingent meanings (this does not stop my desires and sorrows from being violent ones); what impels me, secretly and obstinately, is not tactical: I accept and I affirm, irrespective of the true and the false, of success and failure; I am withdrawn from all finality, I live according to chance.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the complexities of human emotions and the acceptance of life's uncertainties without being tied to conventional notions of success and failure.
Roland Barthes articulates a profound duality within himself, acknowledging the coexistence of happiness and unhappiness in his pursuit of desires. He suggests that traditional measures of success and failure are ultimately fleeting and subjective, and emphasizes a life lived in acceptance of chance rather than definitive outcomes. This perspective invites readers to reflect on their own emotional landscapes and the nature of fulfillment, advocating for a detachment from rigid success metrics while embracing the chaotic beauty of life.
Themes
HappinessUnhappinessSuccessFailureAcceptanceChancePhilosophyEmotions
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech addressing the importance of embracing uncertainty.
More from Roland Barthes
All quotes →If I acknowledge my dependency, I do so because for me it is a means of signifying my demand: in the realm of love, futility is not a "weakness" or an "absurdity": it is a strong sign: the more futile, the more it signifies and the more it asserts itself as strength.)
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The gesture of the amorous embrace seems to fulfill, for a time, the subject's dream of total union with the loved being: The longing for consummation with the other.
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The text is a tissue of quotations drawn from the innumerable centres of culture.
Roland BarthesRead
I think that cars today are almost the exact equivalent of the great Gothic cathedrals: I mean the supreme creation of an era, conceived with passion by unknown artists, and consumed in image if not in usage by a whole population which appropriates them as a purely magical object.
Roland BarthesRead
All those young photographers who are at work in the world, determined upon the capture of actuality, do not know that they are agents of Death.
Roland BarthesRead
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