Alexandre Kojeve quotes

“The man who works recognizes his own product in the world that has actually been transformed by his work. He recognizes himself in it, he sees his own human reality in it he discovers and reveals to others the objective reality of his humanity of the originally abstract and purely subjective idea he has of himself”
-- Alexandre Kojeve

Source : Alexandre Kojève (1980). “Introduction to the Reading of Hegel”, p.27, Cornell University Press

#Reality Quotes #Men Quotes #Ideas Quotes

“In contrast to the knowledge that keeps man in a passive quietude, Desire dis-quiets him and moves him to action. Born of Desire, action tends to satisfy it, and can do so only by the 'negation,' the destruction or at least the transformation, of the desired object: to satisfy hunger, for example, the food must be destroyed or, in any case, transformed. Thus all action is 'negating'.”
-- Alexandre Kojeve

Source : Alexandre Kojève (1980). “Introduction to the Reading of Hegel”, p.4, Cornell University Press

#Moving Quotes #Men Quotes #Desire Quotes

“Reality is painful -- it's so much easier to keep doing stuff you know you're good at or else to pick something so hard there's no point at which it's obvious you're failing -- but it's impossible to get better without confronting it.”

“Action is the only reality; not only reality, but morality as well.”

Source : Abbie Hoffman (2009). “Revolution for the Hell of It: The Book That Earned Abbie Hoffman a Five-Year Prison Term at the Chicago Conspiracy Trial”, p.9, Da Capo Press

“All my life I've been aware of the Second World War humming in the background. I was born 10 years after it was finished, and without ever seeing it. It formed my generation and the world we lived in. I played Hurricanes and Spitfires in the playground, and war films still form the basis of all my moral philosophy. All the men I've ever got to my feet for or called sir had been in the war.”

“A devotee should be fixed in the conclusion that, the spiritual master cannot be subject to criticism and should never be considered equal to a common man.”

“Our first duty is to satisfy the spiritual master, who can arrange for the Lord's mercy. A common man must first begin to serve the spiritual master or the devotee. Then, through the mercy of the devotee, the Lord will be satisfied. Unless one receives the dust of a devotee's lotus feet on one's head, there is no possibility of advancement. Unless one approaches a pure devotee, he cannot understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead.”

“Men have presented their plans and philosophies for the remedying of earth's ills, but Jesus stands alone in presenting not a system, but His own personality as capable of supplying the needs of the soul.”

“Life, to be sure, is nothing much to lose, But young men think it is, and we were young.”

Source : More Poems (1936) no. 36

“The truth and the facts aren't necessarily the same thing. Telling the truth is the object of all art; facts are what the unimaginative have instead of ideas.”

Source : A. A. Gill (2008). “Paper view: the best of the Sunday Times television reviews”, Orion Pub Co

“To read is to fly: it is to soar to a point of vantage which gives a view over wide terrains of history, human variety, ideas, shared experience and the fruits of many inquiries.”

“Writing essays and teaching composition have helped me immensely in writing poetry, because they've forced me to focus on the structure of ideas.”

Source : "Cartographer of Word Galaxies". Interview with Susan Lerner, logger.believermag.com. September 24, 2013.