44 Quotes by Susan Neiman

We want to make an impact on the world, but we end up making or selling playthings that are developed to keep us distracted and designed to deconstruct. We have turned the activities that were meant to be the stuff of life into mere means of subsisting in it.

Van de geschiedenis van de filosofie leren betekent niet haar zonder bedenkingen accepteren. Met behulp van haar inzichten kunnen we enig licht werpen op de onze. We kunnen niet op dezelfde stellingen terugvallen die eerder door de denkers van de Verlichting werden verdedigd, zelfs niet op die van haar modernste vertegenwoordigers. Misschien ligt de hoop niet in het beantwoorden van de vraag naar de zin van het leven, maar juist in het verwerpen van die vraag.

Whatever else you may need to get clarity, you must start with open eyes.

You may substitute knowledge for superstition without satisfying the needs that drive people into superstition’s arms.

Growing up means realizing that no time of one’s life is the best one, and resolving to savor every second of joy within reach. You know each will pass, and you no longer experience that as betrayal.

Human attempts to construct moral order are always precarious: If righteousness too often leads to self-righteousness, the demand for justice can lead to one guillotine or another.

Freedom cannot simply mean doing whatever strikes you at the moment: that way you’re a slave to any whim or passing fancy. Real freedom involves control over your life as a whole, learning to make plans and promises and decisions, to take responsibility for your actions’ consequences.

Unlike kitsch, moral clarity is hard to come by. It means working to make sense of things you do not even want to acknowledge. It often means not knowing if you ever get it right.

Given all the forces arrayed against it, no wonder Kant thought growing up to be more a matter of courage than knowledge: all the information in the world is no substitute for the guts to use your own judgement. And judgement can be learned – principally through the experience of watching others use it well – but it cannot be taught.