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Thousands of mind that trample us underfoot
“It anyone gets intoxicated with his knowledge when he looks beneath him, let him turn his eyes upward toward past ages, and he will lower his horns, finding there so many thousands of minds that trample him underfoot. … No particular quality will make a man proud who balances it against the many weaknesses and…
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A thorny undertaking
“It is a thorny undertaking, and more so than it seems, to follow a movement so wandering as that of our mind, to penetrate the opaque depth of its innermost folds, to pick out and immobilize the innumerable flutterings that agitate it. And it is a new and extraordinary amusement, which withdraws us from the…
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All contradictions may be found in me
“anyone who observes carefully can hardly find himself twice in the same state. … If I speak of myself in different ways, that is because I look at myself in different ways. All contradictions may be found in me by some twist and in some fashion. Bashful, insolent; chaste, lascivious; talkative, taciturn; tough, delicate; clever,…
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Actions from neighboring circumstances
“The surest thing, in my opinion, would be to trace our actions to the neighboring circumstances, without getting into any further research and without drawing from them any other conclusions.” II.1 “Of the inconsistency of our actions” (p. 292) [Makes me think of relational personalities instead of individual. Self as husband, father, son, brother, professor,…