My turn shall also come: I sense the spreading of a wing.
Osip MandelstamRead
And I walk out of space Into an overgrown garden of values, And tear up seeming stability And self-comprehension of causes. And your, infinity, textbook I read by myself, without people - Leafless, savage medical book, A problem book of gigantic radicals.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on the complexity of understanding values and knowledge in an ever-changing world.
Osip Mandelstam's quote conveys a deep exploration of the nature of knowledge and personal experience. The imagery of walking into an 'overgrown garden of values' suggests a chaotic but rich landscape of beliefs and morals, while tearing up 'seeming stability' highlights the constant reassessment of what we think we know and understand. Additionally, the references to reading a 'textbook' alone symbolize the solitary journey of grappling with challenging ideas that may not have clear answers, emphasizing the struggle and complexity of intellectual growth and self-discovery in the face of vast, often overwhelming, concepts.
Themes
KnowledgeValuesPhilosophyUnderstandingSelf-Discovery
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a philosophy class to spark discussions about the nature of knowledge.
More from Osip Mandelstam
All quotes →The people need poetry that will be their own secret_x000D_ To keep them awake forever,_x000D_ And bathe them in the bright-haired wave of its breathing.
Osip MandelstamRead
Perhaps my whisper was already born before my lips.
Osip MandelstamRead
Perhaps the whisper was born before lips, And the leaves in treelessness circled and flew, And those, to whom we impart our experience as bliss, Acquire their forms before we do
Osip MandelstamRead
Similar quotes
Africa can and will only advance through African integration, which can be realized through the Federal United States of Africa
Cheikh Anta DiopRead
Unlike Joseph her husband, Mary is neither upright nor pious, but she is not blame for this, the blame lies with the language she speaks if not with the men who invented it, because that language has no feminine form for the words upright and pious.
Jose SaramagoRead
The lapse of ages changes all things - time - language - the earth - the bounds of the sea - the stars of the sky, and everything 'about, around, and underneath' man, except man himself, who has always been and always will be, an unlucky rascal. The infinite variety of lives conduct but to death, and the infinity of wishes lead but to disappointment. All the discoveries which have yet been made have multiplied little but existence.
Lord ByronRead
The more we come out and do good to others, the more our hearts will be purified, and God will be in them.
Swami VivekanandaRead
Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.
Jean-Paul SartreRead
It is easy to imagine fantasy as physical and myth as real. We do it almost every moment. We do this as we dream, as we think, and as we cope with the world about us. But these worlds of fantasy that we form into the solid things around us are the source of our discontent. They inspire our search to find ourselves.
Walker EvansRead