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The Task Of The Real Intellectual Consists Of Analyzing Illusions In Order To Discover Their Causes.
-Arthur Miller
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The Task Of The

Arthur Miller
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The Task Of The Real Intellectual Consists Of Analyzing Illusions In Order To Discover Their Causes.

Understanding the Quote: "the task of the real intellectual consists of analyzing illusions in order..."

This quote by Arthur Miller reflects deeply on the theme of real. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Real, Order, Intellectual, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Arthur Miller interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Arthur Miller

Arthur Miller is celebrated for insightful thoughts on real and order. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Real
Order
Intellectual
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Amos Oz Is One Of The Finest Novelists Of This Entire Period. My Michael Is A Beautiful Work Of Great Depth And In Some Indescribable Way Lingers In The Mind As A Lyric Song To His Country's People As Much As A Moving Love Story.
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Success, Instead Of Giving Freedom Of Choice, Becomes A Way Of Life. There's No Country I've Been To Where People, When You Come Into A Room And Sit Down With Them, So Often Ask You, "what Do You Do?" And, Being American, Many's The Time I've Almost Asked That Question, Then Realized It's Good For My Soul Not To Know. For A While! Just To Let The Evening Wear On And See What I Think Of This Person Without Knowing What He Does And How Successful He Is, Or What A Failure. We're Ranking Everybody Every Minute Of The Day.
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There Is A Problem On The So-called Commercial Stage In New York. The Price Of A Ticket Is Exorbitant, And There Are No Longer Original Productions Possible, Apparently, On The Commercial Stage. They Are All Plays That Were Taken From Either England Or Smaller Theaters, Off-broadway Theaters, And So On. The One Justification There Used To Be For The Commercial Theater Was That It Originated Everything We Had, And Now It Originates Nothing. But The Powers That Be Seem Perfectly Content To Have It That Way. They Don't Risk Anything Anymore, And They Simply Pick Off The Cream.
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The Car, The Furniture, The Wife, The Children - Everything Has To Be Disposable. Because You See The Main Thing Today Is - Shopping.
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. . Usually, The Biggest Problems Of Adapting Plays Into Screenplays Is That They Stick Too Close To The Play, And I Think Film Is A Completely Different Medium. I Think A Novel Is Much Closer To A Film.
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A Political Policy Is Equated With Moral Right, And Opposition To It With Diabolical Malevolence.
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I Realized What A Ridiculous Lie My Whole Life Has Been.
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Children
Mind
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Dream
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Way
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World
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Fighting
Boys
Way
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Don't Take It On Yourself. Forget Now. Live.
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Success, Instead Of Giving Freedom Ofchoice, Becomes A Way Of Life.
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Way
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Those Who Formally Rule Take Their Signals And Commands Not From The Electorate As A Body, But From A Small Group Of Men. This Group Will Be Called The Establishment. It Exists Even Though That Existence Is Stoutly Denied. It Is One Of The Secrets Of The American Social Order... A Second Secret Is The Fact That The Existence Of The Establishment - The Ruling Class - Is Not Supposed To Be Discussed.
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Son
World
Don't Be Seduced Into Thinking That That Which Does Not Make A Profit Is Without Value.
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Thinking
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Years
I Speak My Own Sins; I Cannot Judge Another. I Have No Tongue For It.
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What Work You Do! It's Strange Work For A Christian Girl To Hang Old Women!
Girl
Christian
Strange
Until An Hour Before The Devil Fell, God Thought Him Beautiful In Heaven.
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Beautiful
Heaven
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Moments
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Summer
Morning
School
When A Deposit Bottle Is Broken, You Don't Get Your Nickel Back.
Broken
Bottles
Nickels
The Only Thing You Got In This World Is What You Can Sell. And The Funny Thing Is That You're A Salesman, And You Don't Know That.
Funny Things
World
Salesman
Nobody Dast Blame This Man. For A Salesman, There Is No Rock Bottom To The Life. He Don't Put A Bolt To A Nut, He Don't Tell You The Law Or Give You Medicine. He's A Man Way Out There In The Blue, Riding On A Smile And A Shoeshine. And When They Start Not Smiling Back -- That's An Earthquake. And Then You Get Yourself A Couple Of Spots On Your Hat, And You're Finished. Nobody Dast Blame This Man. A Salesman Is Got To Dream, Boy. It Comes With The Territory.
Dream
Couple
Men
Whether For Good Or Evil, It Is Sadly Inevitable That All Political Leadership Requires The Artifices Of Theatrical Illusion. In The Politics Of A Democracy, The Shortest Distance Between Two Points Is Often A Crooked Line.
Distance
Two
Evil
In The Theater, While You Recognized That You Were Looking At A House, It Was A House In Quotation Marks. On Screen, The Quotation Marks Tend To Be Blotted Out By The Camera.
House
Cameras
Quotation Marks
The Price Grew Out Of A Need To Reconfirm The Power Of The Past, The Seedbed Of Current Reality, And The Way To Possibly Reaffirm Cause And Effect In An Insane World.
Past
Reality
Insane World
The Famous Are Balloons Far Up In The Sky, To Be Envied For Their Quiet Freedom Or Shot Down As Enemies.
Sky
Enemy
Balloons
Nevertheless, One Learned Very Early That Books Had To Be Respected; They Were All Putative Bibles And To Some Small Degree Had A Share In Holiness.
Book
Degrees
Holiness
He Have His Goodness Now. God Forbid I Take It From Him!
Crucible
Goodness
The Structure Of A Play Is Always The Story Of How The Birds Came Home To Roost.
Home
Writing
Editing
Life, Woman, Life Is God's Most Precious Gift; No Principle, However Glorious, May Justify The Taking Of It.
Crucible
Principles
May
As A Writer, I've Always Believed That While My Work And I Myself Are Embedded In Whatever Period I Am Writing About, Clearly I Am Sensitive To The Winds That Are Blowing In The Culture. At The Same Time, I Have Always Felt That The Issue Was Not To Deal With The Problem In The Abstract, But To Deal With The People Who Are In That Problem. The Emphasis Is On The People. The General Problem Begins To Resolve Itself Even Before The Play Is Finished.
Writing
Issues
Wind
A Child's Spirit Is Like A Child, You Can Never Catch It By Running After It; You Must Stand Still, And, For Love, It Will Soon Itself Come Back.
Running
Children
Romance
A Character Is Defined By The Kinds Of Challenges He Cannot Walk Away From. And By Those He Has Walked Away From That Cause Him Remorse.
Character
Challenges
Causes
I Don't Say He's A Great Man. Willie Loman Never Made A Lot Of Money. His Name Was Never In The Paper. He's Not The Finest Character That Ever Lived. But He's A Human Being, And A Terrible Thing Is Happening To Him. So Attention Must Be Paid. He's Not To Be Allowed To Fall In His Grave Like An Old Dog. Attention, Attention Must Finally Be Paid To Such A Person.
Dog
Fall
Character
... So Many Tremendous Decisions In Life Are Made Because It Is Five O'clock.
Decision
Clock
Made
The Very Impulse To Write Springs From An Inner Chaos Crying For Order - For Meaning.
Spring
Writing
Order
I Think It's A Mistake To Ever Look For Hope Outside Of One's Self.
Mistake
Thinking
Self
Tragedy Enlightens - And It Must, In That It Points The Heroic Finger At The Enemy Of Man's Freedom. The Thrust For Freedom Is The Quality In Tragedy Which Exalts. The Revolutionary Questioning Of The Stable Environment Is What Terrifies.
Men
Enemy
Tragedy
They Tried To Escape Technology, To Stay Away From That And Still Have Relationships With Their Fellow Humans. Very Difficult.
Technology
Difficult
Humans
The Best Of Our Theater Is Standing On Tiptoe, Striving To See Over The Shoulders Of Father And Mother. The Worst Is Exploiting And Wallowing In The Self-pity Of Adolescence And Obsessive Keyhole Sexuality. The Way Out, As The Poet Says, Is Always Through.
Mother
Father
Self
The Crucible Became By Far My Most Frequently Produced Play, Both Abroad And At Home. Its Meaning Is Somewhat Different In Different Places And Moments. I Can Almost Tell What The Political Situation In A Country Is When The Play Is Suddenly A Hit There It Is Either A Warning Of Tyranny On The Way Or A Reminder Of Tyranny Just Past.
Country
Home
Past
Certainly The Most Diverse, If Minor, Pastime Of Literary Life Is The Game Of Find The Author.
Games
Life Is
Pastime
And Old Dave, He'd Go Up To His Room, Y'understand, Put On His Green Velvet Slippers - I'll Never Forget - And Pick Up His Phone And Call The Buyers, And Without Leaving His Room, At The Age Of Eighty-four, He Made His Living. And When I Saw That, I Realized That Selling Was The Greatest Career A Man Could Want.
Men
Phones
Careers
When Today Fails To Offer The Justification For Hope, Tomorrow Becomes The Only Grail Worth Pursuing.
Memorable
Today
Tomorrow
In America, Any Man Who Is Not A Reactionary In His Views Is Open To The Charge Of Alliance With The Red Hell.
War
Men
Views
Peace. It Is A Providence, And No Great Change; We Are Only What We Always Were, But Naked Now.
Crucible
Naked
Providence
I'm Sure There Are Writers Who Are Great Businessmen, But I Never Met Any.
Great Business
Mets
Businessman
The Brain Heals The Past Like An Injury.
Past
Brain
Injury
A Playwright Lives In An Occupied Country. And If You Can't Live That Way You Don't Stay.
Country
Way
Playwright
How To Live Had Started Out As An Analytical Problem Of How To Place Himself So As To Intercept The Flow Of Money In The Society.
Money
Flow
Problem
The Mission Of The Theatre, After All, Is To Change, To Raise The Consciousness Of People To Their Human Possibilities.
People
Theatre
Consciousness
Because It Is My Name! Because I Cannot Have Another In My Life! Because I Lie And Sign Myself To Lies! Because I Am Not Worth The Dust On The Feet Of Them That Hang! How May I Live Without My Name? I Have Given You My Soul; Leave Me My Name!
Lying
Dust
Names
Man Must Shape His Tools Lest They Shape Him.
Men
Tools
Shapes
Pop, I'm Nothing! I'm Nothing, Pop. Can't You Understand That? There's No Spite In It Any More. I'm Just What I Am, That's All.
Pops
Spite
An Idol Tells People Exactly What To Believe, God Presents Them With Choices They Have To Make For Themselves. The Difference Is Far From Insignificant; Before The Idol Men Remain Dependent Children, Before God They Are Burdened And At The Same Time Liberated To Participate In The Decisions Of Endless Creation.
God
Children
Believe
I Think The Tragic Feeling Is Invoked In Us When We Are In The Presence Of A Character Who Is Ready To Lay Down His Life, If Need Be, To Secure One Thing -- His Sense Of Personal Dignity.
Character
Thinking
Feelings
Rise Early. Write. Disappoint Your Sons. Read The Newspaper. Go To Bed Early. Success.
Writing
Son
Bed
There Is A Kind Of Perverse Unity Forming Among Us, Born, I Think, Of The Discontent Of All Classes Of People With The Endless Frustration Of Life.
Frustration
Thinking
Class
Today, [theatre's] More Likely To Be Consciously Not Aimed At The Public, But At A More Sophisticated Or Educated Public. . . . The Result Is That Some Of The Sheer Humanity Has Leaked Out Of The Enterprise.
Humanity
Theatre
Crafts
He's Not The Finest Character That Ever Lived. But He's A Human Being, And A Terrible Thing Is Happening To Him. So Attention Must Be Paid.
Failure
Character
Attention
It Was Not Really Possible To Understand Oneself, Let Alone Another Human Being.
Self
Humans
Oneself
...when The Government Goes Into The Business Of Destroying Trust, It Goes Into The Business Of Destroying Itself.
Government
Liberty
Destroying
Well, All The Plays That I Was Trying To Write Were Plays That Would Grab An Audience By The Throat And Not Release Them, Rather Than Presenting An Emotion Which You Could Observe And Walk Away From.
Writing
Play
Trying
You Can't Eat The Orange And Throw The Peel Away - A Man Is Not A Piece Of Fruit.
Men
Orange
Pieces
Hale, With A Tasty Love Of Intellectual Pursuit
Crucible
Intellectual
Pursuit
I Cannot Sleep For Dreaming; I Cannot Dream But I Wake And Walk About The House As Though I'd Find You Coming Through Some Door.
Dream
Sleep
Doors
Can Anyone Remember Love? It's Like Trying To Summon Up The Smell Of Roses In A Cellar. You Might See A Rose, But Never The Perfume.
Best Friend
Smell
Rose
Whoever Is Writing In The United States Is Using The American Dream As An Ironical Pole Of His Story. People Elsewhere Tend To Accept, To A Far Greater Degree Anyway, That The Conditions Of Life Are Hostile To Mans Pretensions.
Dream
Writing
People
A Play's An Interpretation. It Is Not A Report. And That Is The Beginning Of Its Poetry Because, In Order To Interpret, You Have To Distort Toward A Symbolic Construction Of What Happened, And As That Distortion Takes Place, You Begin To Leave Out And Overemphasize And Consequently Deliver Up Life As A Unity Rather Than As A Chaos, And Any Such Attempt, The More Intense It Is, The More Poetic It Becomes.
Order
Play
Unity
More Weight -giles Corey-
Weight
...an Everlasting Funeral Marches Round Your Heart.
Heart
Funeral
March
I Believe In Work. If Somebody Doesn't Create Something, However Small It May Be, He Gets Sick. An Awful Lot Of People Feel That They're Treading Water -- That If They Vanished In Smoke, It Wouldn't Mean Anything At All In This World. And That's A Despairing And Destructive Feeling. It'll Kill You.
Work
Believe
Mean
The Word "now" Is Like A Bomb Through The Window, And It Ticks.
Carpe Diem
Bombs
Window
The Wedding Of Christianity Or Judaism With Nationalism Is Lethal.
Christianity
Judaism
Nationalism
It Is My Art. I Am Better At It Than I Ever Was. And I Will Do It As Long As I Can. When You Reach A Certain Age You Can Slough Off What Is Unnecessary And Concentrate On What Is. And Why Not?
Art
Writing
Long
Let You Look Sometimes For The Goodness In Me, And Judge Me Not.
Judging
Looks
Sometimes
Flight Reservation Systems Decide Whether Or Not You Exist. If Your Information Isn't In Their Database, Then You Simply Don't Get To Go Anywhere.
Funny
Information
Databases
Sometimes...it's Better For A Man Just To Walk Away. But If You Can't Walk Away? I Guess That's When It's Tough.
Men
Tough
Sometimes
I've Always Made A Point Of Not Wasting My Life, And Every Time I Come Back Here I Know That All I've Done Is To Waste My Life.
Done
Waste
Made
Immortality Is Like Trying To Carve Your Initials In A Block Of Ice In The Middle Of July.
Life
Block
July
When Irrational Terror Takes To Itself The Fiat Of Moral Goodness Somebody Has To Die. ... No Man Lives Who Has Not Got A Panic Button, And When It Is Pressed By The Clean White Hand Of Moral Duty, A Certain Murderous Train Is Set In Motion.
Men
White
Hands
Proctor--he Knows It Is Insane: No, It Is Not The Same! What Others Say And What I Sign To Is Not The Same!
Insane
Knows
My Conception Of The Audience Is Of A Public Each Member Of Which Is Carrying About With Him What He Thinks Is An Anxiety, Or A Hope, Or A Preoccupation Which Is His Alone And Isolates Him From Mankind And In This Respect At Least The Function Of A Play Is To Reveal Him To Himself So That He May Touch Others By Virtue Of The Revelation Of His Mutuality With Them. If Only For This Reason I Regard The Theater As A Serious Business, One That Makes Or Should Make Man More Human, Which Is To Say, Less Alone.
Business
Men
Thinking
The Camera Has Its Own Kind Of Consciousness; In The Lens The Garden Of Eden Itself Would Become Ever So Slightly Too Perfect.
Photography
Garden
Eden
Theater Is A Very Changeable Art. It Responds To The Moment In History The Way The Newspaper Does, And There's No Predicting What To Come Up With Next.
Art
Next
Doe
Part Of Knowing Who We Are Is Knowing We Are Not Someone Else. And Jew Is Only The Name We Give To That Stranger, The Agony We Cannot Feel, The Death We Look At Like A Cold Abstraction. Each Man Has His Jew; It Is The Other.
Men
Knowing
Agony
Betrayal Is The Only Truth That Sticks.
Life
Heartbreak
Betrayal
And Yet One Can't Forever Stand On The Shore; At Some Point, Even If Filled With Indecision, Skepticism, Reservation And Doubt, You Either Jump In Or Concede That Life Is Forever Elsewhere.
Forever
Doubt
Life Is
Charley: He Won't Starve. None A Them Starve. Forget About Him. Willy: Then What Have I Got To Remember?
Remember
Forget
... If You Love Your Country Why Is It Necessary To Hate Other Countries?
Country
Hate
Love You
You Specialize In Something Until One Day It Is Specializing In You.
One Day
Specialization
There Is Unquestionably A Contradiction Between An Efficient Technological Machine And The Flowering Of Human Nature, Of The Human Personality.
Technology
Personality
Machines
I'm A Fatalist.... I Consider I Am Rejected In Principle. My Work Is And, Through My Work, I Am. If It's Accepted, It's Miraculous Or The Result Of A Misunderstanding.
Principles
Accepted
Results
Why Am I Trying To Become What I Don’t Want To Be … When All I Want Is Out There, Waiting For Me The Minute I Say I Know Who I Am.
Who I Am
Waiting
Trying
It May Be That Even If Half Consciously, We Choose Our Personalities To Maintain A Certain Saving Balance In The Family's Little Universe.
Personality
Balance
Half
Try To Keep The Rebel Artist Alive In You, No Matter How Attractive Or Exhausting The Temptation.
Artist
Temptation
Trying
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