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Helmuth Plessner Quotes

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Famous Helmuth Plessner Quotes

“In nature all things are close to or distant from each other. The psychological world knows first the intermediate region of distance seducing to nearness, nearness pressing towards distance, of an irreconcilable closeness-distance.”

Soul Mystery Distance Intimacy Seduction Avoidance

Book:Grenzen der Gemeinschaft

Source: Grenzen der Gemeinschaft

“We want ourselves to be seen and to have been seen as we are; and we want just as much to veil ourselves and remain unknown, for behind every determination of our being lies dormant the unspoken possibility of being different.”

Soul Distance Intimacy Avoidance Being Known

Book:Grenzen der Gemeinschaft

Source: Grenzen der Gemeinschaft

“All life with others carries the germ of the capacity of dissolution because souls are more than what they factually are.”

Soul Individual Community Intimacy Potential

Book:Grenzen der Gemeinschaft

Source: Grenzen der Gemeinschaft

“The aura of what is veiled seduces the person to break its magic and disclose the secret. But if it is only distance and foreignness that is seductive, this has the effect of drawing the person in the direction of absolute intimacy and familiarity, a direction which destroys the aura. The stimulus of psychological distance lies in a repulsion that attracts and an attraction which ultimately repulses - a movement never in balance. We enjoy such a stimulus not only in art and the regions of contemplative silence, but above all, in life with things and persons. It forms the air of a genuine milieu without which we would atrophy. Magic that wishes to be and, yet, not to be decoded; promises that promise everything and promise nothing - whoever understands this comprehends the being of the soul in its ultimate questionability.”

Magic Mystery Longing Distance Attraction Intimacy Secrets Aura

Book:Grenzen der Gemeinschaft

Source: Grenzen der Gemeinschaft

“And we also recognize this dance-like spirit, this ethos of grace: societal conduct, the control not only of written and established conventions, the virtuous mastery of forms of play where persons come close to each other without meeting and where they establish distance without damaging each other through indifference; amiability and not insistence is the atmosphere of this ethos of grace - its ethical law is the game and its observation, not seriousness. Forced distance between persons becomes ennobled into reserve. The offensive indifference, coldness, and rudeness of living past each other is made ineffective through the forms of politeness, respectfulness, and attentiveness. Reserve counteracts a too great intimacy.”

Play Games Society Balance Intimacy Moderation Politeness Tact

Book:Grenzen der Gemeinschaft

Source: Grenzen der Gemeinschaft

“All ceremonial events such as initiation (baptism) and incorporation, signs of communal membership, signify in the final analysis the renunciation of the intimate sphere of the person, if not emotionally, as in the bond of a biological blood-based kinship, then nevertheless spiritually, ideationally, and symbolically.”

Community Marriage Intimacy Privacy Initiation Ceremonies

Book:Grenzen der Gemeinschaft

Source: Grenzen der Gemeinschaft