Home > Topic > our sensibilities
1 " But let us not forget that human love and compassion are equally deeply rooted in our primate heritage, and in this sphere too our sensibilities are of a higher order of magnitude than those of chimpanzees. "
― Jane Goodall
2 " A note on language. Be even more suspicious than I was just telling you to be, of all those who employ the term " we" or " us" without your permission. This is another form of surreptitious conscription, designed to suggest that " we" are all agreed on " our" interests and identity. Populist authoritarians try to slip it past you; so do some kinds of literary critics (" our sensibilities are enraged..." ) Always ask who this " we" is; as often as not it's an attempt to smuggle tribalism through the customs. An absurd but sinister figure named Ron " Maulana" Karenga—the man who gave us Ebonics and Kwanzaa and much folkloric nationalist piffle—once ran a political cult called " US." Its slogan—oddly catchy as well as illiterate—was " Wherever US is, We are." It turned out to be covertly financed by the FBI, though that's not the whole point of the story. Joseph Heller knew how the need to belong, and the need for security, can make people accept lethal and stupid conditions, and then act as if they had imposed them on themselves. "
3 " Good docents often begin by asking the viewer, “What do you see in this work?” The idea that the expert should be allowed to constrain the interpretation of others rightly offends our sensibilities about museums and art. It ought to offend us just as much when applied to Scripture. "
― Dale B. Martin , Sex and the Single Savior: Gender and Sexuality in Biblical Interpretation
4 " A 'real' person, profoundly as we may sympathise with him, is in a great measure perceptible only through our senses, that is to say, he remains opaque, offers a dead weight which our sensibilities have not the strength to lift. "
― Marcel Proust , Swann's Way
5 " A real person, profoundly as we may sympathize with him, is in a great measure perceptible only through our senses, that is to say, remains opaque, presents a dead weight which our sensibilities have not the strength to lift. If some misfortune comes to him, it is only in one small section of the complete idea we have of him that we are capable of feeling any emotion; indeed it is only in one small section of the complete idea he has of himself that he is capable of feeling any emotion either. "
6 " From the moment we walk out the door until we come back home our sensibilities are so assaulted by the world that we have to soak up as much love as we can get simply to arm ourselves. "
