Quotes from thinkers, old and new, about how the humanities relate to our lives.
Forests of philosophy
Forests of philosophy: how our trail-blazing only leads to passing points of rest. No one like the path-finder himself feels the immensity of the forest, or knows the accidentality of his own trails. Columbus, dreaming of [...]
Voyages of Discovery
Voyages of Discovery: what are our certainties, when we, and what we find, are constantly in flux? A swifter and more obvious stream lays hold of mankind, for although the waters of a river flee, [...]
Explanation vs. perception: how intellectual comprehension gets it wrong
Explanation vs. perception: how intellectual comprehension gets it wrong Ibn Arabi taught through what was apparently love-poetry, and people became bitterly hostile towards him. This behavior of theirs was due to their inability to understand [...]
The mission and meanderings of learning
The mission and meanderings of learning: thoughts on the purpose of education 2000 years ago. You have been wishing to know my views with regard to liberal studies. My answer is this: I respect no [...]
Science, industry, and racial barriers
Science, industry, and racial barriers: one of America's most eminent historians reflects on a lifetime of change and stasis But the challenges I, my brother, Buck, and my sisters, Mozella and Anne, faced were always formidable. [...]
Easily lies the head that would wear a crown
Easily lies the head that would wear a crown: why political falsehoods maintain their efficacy There is one essential point wherein a political liar differs from others of the faculty, that he ought to have but [...]
Identity and Difference: can we become part of another society without losing ourselves?
Identity and Difference: can we become part of another society without losing ourselves? A man who gives himself to be a possession of aliens leads a Yahoo life, having bartered his soul to a brute-master. He is [...]
Thought, language, and knowledge: does our use of language shape our view of things, and rationality?
Thought, language, and knowledge: does our use of language shape our view of things, and rationality? What could be more obvious than that people carry over the way they comprehend things through statements onto the structure of [...]
Egyptian knowledge, health, and piety
Egyptian knowledge, health, and piety: Herodotus, the Greek "Father of History," remarks on Egyptian learning and character. The Egyptians who live in the cultivated parts of the country, by their practice of keeping records of the [...]
Of books to books: Washington Irving on the library of Westminster Abbey
Of books to books: Geoffrey Crayon speaks to volumes in the library of Westminster Abbey, and ponders the ways time and technology transform our knowledge. “Language gradually varies, and with it fade away the writings of authors [...]