James Quotes

Found two very interesting quotes finishing up William James’s Pluralistic Universe.

The first pretty much sums up my view of God, the universe, and human understanding:

“We may be in the universe as dogs and cats are in our libraries, seeing the books and hearing the conversation, but having no inkling of the meaning of it all.”

A common observation, but very well-put, I thought.

The second struck me particularly as more relevant in today’s modern era than the one in which James was writing (1908):

“Lots of inferior books, lots of bad statues, lots of dull speeches, of tenth-rate men and women, as a condition of the few precious specimens in either kind being realized!”

How very true. I immediately think of the Oprah-fication of our modern American society. Do we ever hear such a sentiment so scathingly stated nowadays? So matter-of-factly? I have no doubt that such critiques are meted out in this day and age, and I also have no doubt that they are bleated down by the sheer numbers of the inferior.