Sublime
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Only silence enables us to say something unheard of. The compulsion of communication, by contrast, leads to the reproduction of the same, to conformism:
So it’s not a problem of getting people to express themselves but of providing little gaps of solitude and silence in which they might eventually find something to say. Repressive forces don’t stop
Byung-Chal Han • Vita Contemplativa
The same goes, of course, for human beings. The distancing effect of language facilitates exploitation, cruelty, murder, and genocide. When the other party to a relationship is a mere member of a generic category, be it “customer,” “terrorist,” or “employee,” exploitation or murder comes much more easily. Racial epithets serve the same purpose: we
... See moreCharles Eisenstein • The Ascent of Humanity: Civilization and the Human Sense of Self
above all, don’t talk about people, either to praise or criticize them, or to compare them.
Epictetus • Discourses, Fragments, Handbook (Oxford World's Classics)
teach anything. He now puts an end to the perception that buddhas realize anything.
Red Pine • The Diamond Sutra: The Perfection of Wisdom
“Just that. Listen, wasn’t it Odo who said that where there’s property there’s theft?” “ ‘To make a thief, make an owner; to create crime, create laws.’
Ursula K. LeGuin • The Dispossessed (S.F. MASTERWORKS)
So it’s not a problem of getting people to express themselves but of providing little gaps of solitude and silence in which they might eventually find something to say. Repressive forces don’t stop... See more
Vita Contemplativa
“Zeno always said that nothing was more unbecoming than putting on airs, especially with the young.” —DIOGENES LAERTIUS, LIVES OF THE EMINENT PHILOSOPHERS, 7.1.22
Ryan Holiday • The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living: Featuring new translations of Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius
On the whole, human beings want to be good, but not too good, and not quite all the time.