Pleasure and pain need to be considered together; they are inseparable. Yet the space filled by each is perhaps different. Pleasure, defined as a sense of gratification, is essential for nature
JOHN BERGERWe can become anything. That is why injustice is impossible here. There may be the accident of birth, there is no accident of death. Nothing forces us to remain what we were.
More John Berger Quotes
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History always constitutes the relation between a present and its past. Consequently fear of the present leads to mystification of the past
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The opposite of love is not to hate but to separate. If love and hate have something in common it is because, in both cases, their energy is that of bringing and holding together
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Drawing is a way of coming upon the connection between things, just like metaphor in poetry reconnects what has become separated.
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Emigration, forced or chosen, across national frontiers or from village to metropolis, is the quintessential experience of our time.
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The existence of pleasure is the first mystery. The existence of pain has prompted far more philosophical speculation.
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Fanaticism comes from any form of chosen blindness accompanying the pursuit of a single dogma.
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The animal has secrets which, unlike the secrets of caves, mountains, seas are specifically addressed to man.
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Words are so often used in the opposite sense, as a screen of diversion. It’s the struggle towards truthfulness which is the same whether one is writing a poem, a novel or an argument.
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By contrast, a woman’s presence… defines what can and cannot be done to her.
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Between the experience of living a normal life at this moment on the planet and the public narratives being offered to give a sense to that life, the empty space, the gap, is enormous.
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A cigarette is a breathing space. It makes a parenthesis.
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Advertising is not merely an assembly of competing messages; it is a language itself which is always being used to make the same general proposal
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Whenever the intensity of looking reaches a certain degree, one becomes aware of an equally intense energy coming towards one through the appearance of whatever it is one is scrutinizing.
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The woman’s sexual passion needs to be minimized, so that the spectator may feel that he has the monopoly on such passion
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The happiness of being envied is glamour. Being envied is a solitary form of reassurance. It depends precisely upon not sharing your experience with those who envy you.
JOHN BERGER