-But rational thoughts lead only to rational thoughts, whereas irrational thoughts lead to new experiences.
Alan LightmanRead
The tragedy of this world is that everyone is alone. For a life in the past cannot be shared with the present.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the inherent isolation of human experiences over time.
Alan Lightman's quote emphasizes the deep sense of loneliness that arises from the passage of time. It points out that each individual's experiences, particularly those tied to the past, cannot be shared or fully understood by others in the present, leading to a poignant sense of solitude in the human condition.
In practice
In a speech on the importance of connection, one might quote this to highlight the need for understanding each other's experiences.
-But rational thoughts lead only to rational thoughts, whereas irrational thoughts lead to new experiences.
In this world, there are two times. There is mechanical time and there is body time. The first is as rigid and metallic as a massive pendulum of iron that swings back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. The second squirms and wriggles like a bluefish in a bay. The first is unyielding, predetermined. The second makes up its mind as it goes along.
And at the place where time stands still, one sees lovers kissing in the shadows of buildings, in a frozen embrace that will never let go. The loved one will never take his arms from where they are now, will never give back the bracelet of memories, will never journey afar from his lover, will never place himself in danger of self-sacrifice, will never fail to show his love, will never become jealous, will never fall in love with someone else, will never lose the passion of this instant of time.
In a world without future, each moment is the end of the world.
Who would fare better in this world of fitful time? Those who have seen the future and live only one life? Or those who have not seen the future and wait to live life? Or those who deny the future and live two lives?
Events, once happened, lose reality, alter with a glance, a storm, a night. In time, the past never happened. But who could know? Who could know that the past is not as solid as this instant.
Eternity will be wonderful, but there is one thing heaven will not contain, and that is the call, the possibility, and the privilege of living a supernatural life here and now by faith, before we meet Jesus face to face.
Life without Liberty is like a body without spirit. Liberty without thought is like a disturbed spirit.
A physician is obligated to consider more than a diseased organ, more even than the whole man - he must view the man in his world.
I believe you make your day. You make your life. So much of it is all perception, and this is the form that I built for myself. I have to accept it and work within those compounds, and it's up to me.
We are flawed creatures, all of us. Some of us think that means we should fix our flaws. But get rid of my flaws and there would be no one left.
That his prayer was nothing else but a sense of the presence of GOD, his soul being at that time insensible to everything but Divine love: and that when the appointed times of prayer were past, he found no difference, because he still continued with GOD, praising and blessing Him with all his might, so that he passed his life in continual joy; yet hoped that GOD would give him somewhat to suffer, when he should grow stronger.
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