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Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy

Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy Biography

Philosopher

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“To change with honor seems terribly difficult. Most people are like weathercocks, turning with every change of wind. They rush from one creed to the next as if change of faith were nothing, and in the end become nothing themselves. In a Time of revolution, our own volition contributes very little to our change. Volition and intention can do very little in a world which makes a principle of changing everyday. Perhaps The real danger in such period comes from our own inertia, which makes us accept all these change stoically but without conviction or personal decision. We cannot really change without a period of waiting and relearning. To change with honor seems to be the paradoxical effort that is asked of us today. It means keeping away from both extrêmes, that of rigid honor which kills the force of progress,and that of a mechanical change which leaves the potentialities of the soul untouched.”

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Book:Out of Revolution: Autobiography of a Western Man
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“« Reason, l’esprit, the intellect of the writing and reasoning nation, is constantly fighting against the darkness of « illiteracy ». You must know how to read and write to be a real member of a civilized nation.(…) In clearing up the underbrush of the privilege and prejudice, liberalism or rationalism was convinced that it held in its hand the naked truth, undisguised, unstained by dogma or tradition. Reason discovering nature can test everything by experiment. There is no room for traditional habits: Fashion takes the place of habit. But it is precisly Fashion which enslave Reason. The Philosophizing mind had its prison of sensuality and drudgery exactly like a pupil of the Jesuits or a child in a backwoods village. Its fairy-tale and its prejudice are not dependent upon miracles or dogmas or incenses or witchcraft, but the apparatus of Reason is subject to the same laws of sensuous disguise as any other part of the human soul. Superstition sends us to the medicine man, physical pain to the physician. We have a native sense that urges us on toward Reason and Philosophy: this sense is curiosity. Without a sense for novelty, no thinker can succeed or affect the life of the community. The self-indulgence of Reason is its predilection for the new. »”

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Book:Out of Revolution: Autobiography of Western Man
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“For such is the noble nature of man, that his heart will never wholly lose itself in one single passion or idol, or, as people call it apologetically, one idea. On it goes from one devotion to the next, not because it is ashamed of its first love, but because it must be on fire perpetually. To fall for Reason, as our grandfathers did, is but one Fall of Man among his many passionate attempts to find the apples of knowledge and eternal life, both in one. When a nation, or individual, declines the experiences that present themselves to passionate hearts only, they are automatically turned out from the realm of history. The heart of man either falls in love with somebody or something, or it falls ill. It can never go unoccupied. And the great question for mankind Is what is to be loved or hated next, whenever an old love or fear has lost its hold.”

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Book:Out of Revolution: Autobiography of Western Man
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“As soon as the Gospels were written, speech without experience began to dabble with the new facts proposed by the existence of the Church. People tried to think the new life without being touched by it first in some form of call, listening, passion or change of heart.”

PeopleThinkingFirstsHeartFactsFormPassionChurchExistenceWrittenListeningSpeechTouchedNew LifeChange Of Heart
Book:The Fruit of Lips: Of Why Four Gospels?
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“On the Russian revolutionaries:To leave your parents, faithful and loyal subjects of the Emperor, to leave your profession, to desist from having children, to lose your fortune, and to give up your civil honor, all for revolutionary conviction, makes for a league of more practical proof than any religious order.”

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Author:Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy
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