"Neither in the ancient pagan world nor in any other culture has human history ever been thought to have an overarching significance. In Greece and Rome, it was a series of natural cycles of growth and decline. In India, it was a collective dream, endlessly repeated. The idea that history must make sense is just a Christian prejudice. If you believe that humans are animals, there can be no such thing as the history of humanity, only the lives of particular humans. If we speak of the history of the species at all, it is only to signify the unknowable sum of these lives. As with other animals, some lives are happy, others wretched. None has a meaning that lies beyond itself. Looking for meaning in history is like looking for patterns in clouds."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Nietzsche's Optimism (p.47-8)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Straw_Dogs_(book)
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Straw Dogs (book)
65 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Straw Dogs (book) →
Related Quotes
"If Darwin's discovery had been made in a Taoist or Shinto, Hindu or animist culture it would very likely have become …"
"The destruction of the natural world is not the result of global capitalism, industrialisation, 'Western civilisation…"
"The human population growth that has taken place over the past few hundred years resembles nothing so much as the spi…"
"Pogroms are as old as Christendom; but without railways, the telegraph and poison gas there could have been no Holoca…"
"Cities are no more artificial than the hives of bees. The Internet is as natural as a spider's web. As Margulis and S…"
"The mass of mankind is ruled not by its intermittent moral sensations, still less by self-interest, but by the needs …"
"Religious fundamentalists see themselves as having remedies for the maladies of the modern world. In reality they are…"
"Scientific fundamentalists claim that science is the disinterested pursuit of truth. But representing science in this…"
"Again, science has the power to silence heretics. Today it is the only institution that can claim authority. Like the…"
"Most people today think they belong to a species that can be master of its destiny. This is faith, not science. We do…"