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While I Complain Of Being Able To Glimpse No More Than The Shadow Of The Past, I May Be Insensitive To Reality As It Is Taking Shape At This Very Moment, Since I Have Not Reached The Stage Of Development At Which I Would Be Capable Of Perceiving It. A Few Hundred Years Hence, In This Same Place, Another Traveller, As Despairing As Myself, Will Mourn The Disappearance Of What I Might Have Seen, But Failed To See.

-Claude Levi-Strauss

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While I Complain Of

Claude Levi-Strauss

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While I Complain Of Being Able To Glimpse No More Than The Shadow Of The Past, I May Be Insensitive To Reality As It Is Taking Shape At This Very Moment, Since I Have Not Reached The Stage Of Development At Which I Would Be Capable Of Perceiving It. A Few Hundred Years Hence, In This Same Place, Another Traveller, As Despairing As Myself, Will Mourn The Disappearance Of What I Might Have Seen, But Failed To See.

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I Am The Place In Which Something Has Occurred.

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There Is Today A Frightful Disappearance Of Living Species, Be They Plants Or Animals. And It's Clear That The Density Of Human Beings Has Become So Great, If I Can Say So, That They Have Begun To Poison Themselves. And The World In Which I Am Finishing My Existence Is No Longer A World That I Like.

I Hate Travelling And Explorers

In The Case Of European Towns, The Passing Of Centuries Provides An Enhancement; In The Case Of American Towns, The Passing Of Years Brings Degeneration. It Is Not Simply That They Have Been Newly Built; They Were Built So As To Be Renewable As Quickly As They Were Put Up, That Is, Badly.

While I Complain Of Being Able To Glimpse No More Than The Shadow Of The Past, I May Be Insensitive To Reality As It Is Taking Shape At This Very Moment, Since I Have Not Reached The Stage Of Development At Which I Would Be Capable Of Perceiving It. A Few Hundred Years Hence, In This Same Place, Another Traveller, As Despairing As Myself, Will Mourn The Disappearance Of What I Might Have Seen, But Failed To See.

The Image A Society Evolves Of The Relationship Between The Living And The Dead Is, In The Final Analysis, An Attempt, On The Level Of Religious Thought, To Conceal, Embellish Or Justify The Actual Relationships Which Prevail Among The Living.

Our Students Wanted To Know Everything: But Only The Newest Theory Seemed To Them Worth Bothering With. Knowing Nothing Of The Intellectual Achievements Of The Past, They Kept Fresh And Intact Their Enthusiasm For 'the Latest Thing'. Fashion Dominated Their Interest: They Valued Ideas Not For Themselves But For The Prestige That They Could Wring From Them.

Knowing Nothing

Our System Is The Height Of Absurdity, Since We Treat The Culprit Both As A Child, So As To Have The Right To Punish Him, And As An Adult, In Order To Deny Him Consolation.

Freedom Is Neither A Legal Invention Nor A Philosophical Conquest, The Cherished Possession Of Civilizations More Valid Than Others Because They Alone Have Been Able To Create Or Preserve It. It Is The Outcome Of An Objective Relationship Between The Individual And The Space He Occupies, Between The Consumer And The Resources At His Disposal.

I Can't Help Thinking That Science Would Be More Appealing If It Had No Practical Use.

Natural Man Did Not Precede Society, Nor Is He Outside It.

Scientific Knowledge Advances Haltingly And Is Stimulated By Contention And Doubt.

Understanding Arises From Reducing One Type Of Reality Into Another.

The Scientist Is Not A Person Who Gives The Right Answers, He Is One Who Asks The Right Questions.

The Wise Man Doesn't Give The Right Answers, He Poses The Right Questions.

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Animals Are Good To Think With.

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