Jan Potocki · 631 pages
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“Words strike the air and the mind, they act on the senses and on the soul.”
― Jan Potocki, quote from The Manuscript Found in Saragossa
“Nature is infinitely rich and diverse in her ways. She can be seen to break her most unchanging laws. She has made self-interest the motive of all human action, but in the great host of men she produces ones who are strangely constituted, in whom selfishness is scarcely perceptible because they do not place their affections in themselves. Some are passionate about the sciences, others about the public good. They are as attached to the discoveries of others as if they themselves had made them, or to the institutions of public welfare and the state as if they derived benefit from them. This habit of not thinking of themselves influences the whole course of their lives. They don't know how to use other men for their profit. Fortune offers them opportunities which they do not think of taking up.
In nearly all men the self is almost never inactive. You will detect their self-interest in nearly all the advice they give you, in the services they do for you, in the contacts they make, in the friendships they form. They are deeply attached to the things which affect their interests however remotely, and are indifferent to all others. When they encounter a man who is indifferent to personal interest they cannot understand him. They suspect him of hidden motives, of affectation, or of insanity. They cast him from their bosom, revile him.”
― Jan Potocki, quote from The Manuscript Found in Saragossa
“It is not science which leads to unbelief but rather ignorance. The ignorant man thinks he understands something provided that he sees it every day. The natural philosopher walks amid enigmas, always striving to understand and always half-understanding. He learns to believe what he does not understand, and that is a step on the road to faith.”
― Jan Potocki, quote from The Manuscript Found in Saragossa
“Thought assists memory in enabling it to order the material it has assembled. So that in a systematically ordered memory every idea is individually followed by all conclusions it entails.”
― Jan Potocki, quote from The Manuscript Found in Saragossa
“I study theology in the works of creation and find in it new reasons for adoring the creator.”
― Jan Potocki, quote from The Manuscript Found in Saragossa
“Cuando se ha pasado de los treinta años, aún puede sentirse un intenso afecto y también inspirarlo, pero ¡ay del hombre que a esta edad quiere mezclarse en los juegos de los amores juveniles! Ya no encontramos la alegría en sus labios, la tierna felicidad en sus ojos, la deliciosa sinrazón en su lenguaje. Busca la manera de agradar y ya no posee el instinto fácil que la inspira. Razona el amor. Las más maliciosas y juguetonas desprecian sus lecciones y huyen con raudo vuelo a buscar la compañía de los jóvenes.”
― Jan Potocki, quote from The Manuscript Found in Saragossa
“La palabra golpea el aire y el espíritu, y obra sobre los sentidos y sobre el alma.”
― Jan Potocki, quote from The Manuscript Found in Saragossa
Jan Potocki
Born place: in Pików na Podolu, Poland
Born date March 8, 1761
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― T.M. Frazier, quote from The Dark Light of Day
“Johannes said greedy people can never be happy, and I would so much like to know what it feels like to be happy. Johannes said that when you very much want something you haven't got, you no longer care for what you have got. I'm not sure I understand, but I suppose he meant that things are only worth having if you think they are.”
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