Svend Brinkmann > Quotes

“We now talk about fast food, speed dating, power-naps and short-term therapy. Recently, I tested an app called Spritz. It only shows a single word at a time, but increases your reading speed from 250 to 500-600 words a minute. Suddenly you can read a novel in a couple of hours! But does this help you understand literature any better?”
― Svend Brinkmann, Stå fast

“It is — without a shadow of doubt — better to be an inauthentic Mother Teresa than an authentic Anders Breivik. Indeed, being yourself has no intrinsic value whatsoever. On the other hand, what does have inherent value is fulfilling your obligations to the people with whom you are interconnected (i.e. doing your duty), and whether you are yourself while doing so is essentially meaningless.”
― Svend Brinkmann, Stå fast

“Without an ethical framework, the will is random, controlled solely by the individual's more or less fleeting desires...”
― Svend Brinkmann

“In our secular world, we no longer see eternal paradise as a carrot at the end of the stick of life, but try to cram as much as possible into our relatively short time on the planet instead. This is, of course, a futile endeavour, doomed to failure. It is tempting to interpret the modern epidemics of depression and burnout as the individual's response to the unbearable nature of constant acceleration. The decelerating individual - who slows down instead of speeding up, and maybe even stops completely - seems out of place in a culture characterised by manic development, and may be interpreted pathologically (i.e. diagnosed as clinically depressed).”
― Svend Brinkmann, Stand Firm: Resisting the Self-Improvement Craze

“She thinks positivity is particularly widespread in the USA, but has become a kind of universally accepted international pocket psychology in most Western countries — we should all 'think positively, be ‘resource-oriented and see problems as interesting ‘challenges'. This phenomenon has now reached the point where seriously ill people are expected to 'learn from their illness' and ideally emerge as a stronger person on the other side.”
― Svend Brinkmann, Stå fast

“It is absurd to be eternally mobile, positive and focused on the future, and to put the self at the centre of everything in life. Not only is it absurd, it also has adverse consequences for interpersonal relationships, as other people are quickly reduced to instruments to be used in the individual's pursuit of success, rather than an end in themselves, to whom we have moral obligations.”
― Svend Brinkmann, Stå fast

“The central message of this book — which, in this sense, is in line with Stoicism — is that by looking at the traditions, social practices and relationships of which we form a part, and the duties arising from them, we might regain the ability to address questions about the meaning and value of life.”
― Svend Brinkmann, Stå fast

“He describes how, as individuals in this project society, we 'book' ourselves with appointments and projects in an attempt to use our capacity fully — much like airlines do. Since our duties in life have become mere 'projects', they are, of course, temporary, and we just jettison them if something more interesting pops up on our radar.”
― Svend Brinkmann, Stå fast

“In fact, there is a great deal of evidence to suggest that the biggest social problems stem not from low but from high self-esteem, which is statistically associated with psychopathy and immorality.”
― Svend Brinkmann, Stå fast

“Marcus Aurelius was also preoccupied with the insignificance of things as an antidote to anger. In general, he recommends that you consider the impermanence of all things in order to avoid anger and frustration when those things disappear. If a cup is broken, it may well be a pity — especially if it was valuable — but from the perspective of eternity, where everything is ultimately doomed to perish, it is an extremely small and insignificant matter.”
― Svend Brinkmann, Stå fast

“Do less, more thoroughly.”
― Svend Brinkmann, The Joy of Missing Out

“Everything that can possibly happen at some point, can happen today.”
― Svend Brinkmann, Stå fast

“The philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre has developed a concept of ‘living traditions’, which suggests that traditions are entirely distinct from consensus and a simple repetition of the past. He defines a living tradition as ‘an historically extended, socially embodied argument, and an argument precisely in part about the goods which constitute that tradition’.6 It may seem strange to define a tradition as an ‘argument’ extended over time, but it suggests that any tradition – e.g. of political co-operation, educational practices or artistic activity – must involve a continuous discussion of what it is and how to legitimise or change it. Traditions aren’t monolithic and unchanging (apart from dead ones, of course). They are living, dynamic and in constant motion.”
― Svend Brinkmann, Stand Firm: Resisting the Self-Improvement Craze

“I den accelererende kultur skal man have fødder og ikke rødder. Har man fødder, kan man bevæge sig rundt. Man er mobil, flydende, foranderlig. Man kan løbe, danse og bevæge sig i alle retninger, alt efter hvad der er påkrævet. Har man derimod rødder, er man gået i stå og groet fast. Man kan måske nok bøjes som en plante, men man kan ikke umiddelbart flyttes.”
― Svend Brinkmann, Stå fast

“...the point [of self control] is that we should miss out on that which poses a threat to our moral fortitude and psychological integrity such as constantly hunting for new experiences, relationships and objects that provide a fleeting rush of happiness...”
― Svend Brinkmann

“The concept of coaching is based on constant development and change — regardless of direction and content.”
― Svend Brinkmann, Stå fast

“This seems to be one of the aspects of a more wide-ranging trend in the accelerating culture: that it is harder and harder to build proper friendships.”
― Svend Brinkmann, Stå fast

“True internal control — called integrity in this book — consists of adhering to moral values, understanding the importance of obligations and duty, and using reason to determine what is good and right in a given situation.”
― Svend Brinkmann, Stå fast

“Together, maybe you and your new friend will discover that certain things have intrinsic value, and are not simply defined by their ability to maximise utility based on personal preferences — i.e. making the maximum number of our wishes come true.”
― Svend Brinkmann, Stå fast

“It brings to mind Oscar Wilde, who argued in The Picture of Dorian Gray that only shallow people do not judge on the basis of the external: 'The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.”
― Svend Brinkmann, Stå fast

“Better to face reality than ‘live in a fool's paradise', as my gran would say.”
― Svend Brinkmann, Stå fast

“Perhaps we should learn from Leonard Cohen, who sings in ‘That Don’t Make It Junk’: ‘I know that I’m forgiven, but I don’t know how I know. I don’t trust my inner feelings. Inner feelings come and go.”
― Svend Brinkmann, Stand Firm: Resisting the Self-Improvement Craze

“Once again, we find ourselves mired in a paradox: the way in which we prepare for the future shapes the future as a reflection of the way in which we prepared for it!”
― Svend Brinkmann, Stå fast

“Our modern understanding of life as an autobiographical project is undoubtedly linked to the emergence of the modern novel as a literary form.”
― Svend Brinkmann, Stå fast

“How can you stand firm if you're also supposed to have doubts? What can you stand firm on, when doubt is elevated to the status of a virtue? The easy answer is, of course, to stand firm on doubt itself, i.e. to affirm the right to hesitate, the right to reconsider. This may sound like a trite answer, but in my opinion it is actually quite profound and has huge ethical value. Virtually all political outrages are committed by high-powered males, confident that they know the truth. 'We know there are weapons of mass destruction!'; 'We know Jews are inferior!'; 'We know that the dictatorship of the proletariat is a necessity!' When if comes to the important issues in politics, ethics, and the art of living, it is human in itself to be hesitant and have doubts.”
― Svend Brinkmann, Stå fast

“Rigtig meget - herunder de humanistiske discipliner - [...] kan gøre nytte ved at være unyttige. Med det mener jeg, at vi mere end nogensinde før har brug for at markere, at der er andet og mere i tilværelsen end "det nyttige". Denne erkendelse vil nemlig være nyttig på en dybere, eksistentiel vis.”
― Svend Brinkmann, Ståsteder

“Som mennesker er vi livshistorier, der er flettet sammen med mange andres historier. Selvfølgelig de levendes historier. Dem, der har betydet noget for os og gjort os til dem, vi er. Men også de dødes historier. Dem, der har skabt vores sprog, kultur, myter og viden. Ingen skriver sin historie alene. En stor del af den er givet ved vores biologiske artsnatur, vores almenmenneskelige fornuft, vores følelsesliv og socialitet. Men enhver må finde sin stemme at fortælle med i koret af menneskelige historier. Det er sådan, man bliver sig selv: ved at blive menneske.”
― Svend Brinkmann, Hvad er et menneske?

“It's somewhat banal to say that the contemporary obsession with (auto)biographies reflects a culture of (individualisation — but if that is the case, then it is only banal in the sense of 'blindingly obvious'. I also think that there is something about the linear progression of the biography, in which events happen in chronological order, that has a reassuring effect in an accelerating culture that otherwise seems to be running amok.”
― Svend Brinkmann, Stå fast

“If, for example, you learn a craft or play an instrument, you will understand that this is only possible because the specific practice has a long history, which you help to maintain and develop whenever you recreate aspects of it. To practise living traditions is to be reminded of the historical depth of our lives. In this way, you learn that everything doesn't necessarily always move forwards. For example, it isn't possible to build violins today that are as good as the instruments built in Stradivarius' workshop more than 300 years ago.”
― Svend Brinkmann, Stå fast

“K. E. Løgstrup pointed out in his book Den etiske fordring (The Ethical Demand) that you must use your power over others for their good, not your own.”
― Svend Brinkmann, Stå fast