David Goldman

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Book cover for Gorgias
We will not appreciate Plato’s forceful denunciation of oratory if we fail to understand the importance of oratory in the social and political life of fifth-century Athens. In the major institutions of the democracy in Athens, such as the ...more
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David Foster Wallace
“To experience commitment as the loss of options, a type of death, the death of childhood's limitless possibility, of the flattery of choice without duress-this will happen, mark me. Childhood's end.”
David Foster Wallace, The Pale King

Immanuel Kant
“Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never merely as a means to an end, but always at the same time as an end.”
Immanuel Kant, Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals/On a Supposed Right to Lie Because of Philanthropic Concerns

David Foster Wallace
“The truth is that the heroism of your childhood entertainments was not true valor. It was theatre. The grand gesture, the moment of choice, the mortal danger, the external foe, the climactic battle whose outcome resolves all--all designed to appear heroic, to excite and gratify and audience. Gentlemen, welcome to the world of reality--there is no audience. No one to applaud, to admire. No one to see you. Do you understand? Here is the truth--actual heroism receives no ovation, entertains no one. No one queues up to see it. No one is interested.”
David Foster Wallace, The Pale King

Fyodor Dostoevsky
“I can see the sun, but even if I cannot see the sun, I know that it exists. And to know that the sun is there - that is living.”
Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

Hannah Arendt
“Men in plural […] can experience meaningfulness only because they can talk with and make sense to each other and themselves.”
Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition

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