The task of a writer consists of being able to make something out of an idea.
Thomas MannRead
Technology and comfort - having those, people speak of culture, but do not have it.
Interpretation
Comfort and technology can create an illusion of culture without true cultural understanding.
In this quote, Thomas Mann suggests that the advancement of technology and the conveniences it brings can lead people to believe they possess culture. However, he warns that this superficial understanding does not equate to genuine cultural depth or appreciation, indicating that true culture requires more than just comfort and technologyβit requires involvement and engagement in oneβs cultural heritage and the arts.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of genuine cultural experiences over digital conveniences.
The task of a writer consists of being able to make something out of an idea.
Stupid β well, there are so many kinds of stupidity, and cleverness is one of the worst.
It is a strange fact that freedom and equality, the two basic ideas of democracy, are to some extent contradictory. Logically considered, freedom and equality are mutually exclusive, just as society and the individual are mutually exclusive.
I tell them that if they will occupy themselves with the study of mathematics they will find in it the best remedy against the lusts of the flesh.
Literature... is the union of suffering with the instinct for form.
The Freudian theory is one of the most important foundation stones for an edifice to be built by future generations, the dwelling of a freer and wiser humanity.
I think that technologies are morally neutral until we apply them. It's only when we use them for good or for evil that they become good or evil.
The future is already upon us, it is just unevenly distributed.
To turn really interesting ideas and fledgling technologies into a company that can continue to innovate for years, it requires a lot of disciplines.
It's a fact that more people watch television and get their information that way than read books. I find new technology and new ways of communication very exciting and would like to do more in this field.
Web 2.0 ideas have a chirpy, cheerful rhetoric to them, but I think they consistently express a profound pessimism about humans, human nature and the human future.
I understood the importance in principle of public key cryptography but it's all moved much faster than I expected. I did not expect it to be a mainstay of advanced communications technology
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