The Clog from OzRemy De Gourmont and The Human Mind
June 12th 2006 08:14
“The human mind is so complex and things are so tangled up with each other that, to explain a blade of straw, one would have to take to pieces an entire universe. A definition is a sack of flour compressed into a thimble.”
- Remy De Gourmont
Rémy de Gourmont (1858-1915) was a French Symbolist poet, novelist, and influential critic. This quote reminds us that whatever we are taught is just a snippet of what is actually real. At present, it’s not possible to ‘take to pieces an entire universe’, nor is it even necessary for us humans; we substitute full explanations of objects and ideas with what is relevant to us in our three dimensional world.
I like how the second sentence of this quote is much more casual than the first, it seems to be implying that we humans only really see the tip of the iceberg. The quote starts off intriguingly by saying how the ‘human mind is so complex’, but then ‘A definition is a sack of flour…’ has a sharp, frank attitude; the author making a distinction between what is real and what we observe.
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trohr%C3%A4der.jpg
- Remy De Gourmont
Is it necessary to completely define a blade of straw?
I like how the second sentence of this quote is much more casual than the first, it seems to be implying that we humans only really see the tip of the iceberg. The quote starts off intriguingly by saying how the ‘human mind is so complex’, but then ‘A definition is a sack of flour…’ has a sharp, frank attitude; the author making a distinction between what is real and what we observe.
Image backed by the GNU Free Documentation License - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image
trohr%C3%A4der.jpg| 66 |
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