Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy Quotes

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.

The space of play and the space of thought are the two theaters of freedom.

Grammar and logic free language from being at the mercy of the tone of voice. Grammar protects us against misunderstanding the sound of an uttered name; logic protects us against what we say have double meaning.

To a mankind that recognizes the equality of man everywhere, every war becomes a civil war.

Humanity has always conquered the flux of natural time by means of a rhythm between active and passive time-spans. To reconquer his holidays, to establish a new and better time schedule for life, has been the great endeavour of man ever since the days of Noah.

Everybody is a bit right.

Experiences of the first order, of the first rank, are not realized through the eye.

Thought is not consecrated unless it resists trends.

Sexuality throws no light upon love, but only through love can we learn to understand sexuality.

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.

He who suffers wins in politics. The martyr does not obtain the victory personally, but his group, his successors, win in the long run.

He who believes in nothing still needs a girl to believe in him.

We are so dull that we rarely realize how much history lies hidden in marriage, and how the one word spoken by the bride makes all the difference between cattle-raising and a nation's good breeding.

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.

Three-quarters of a soldier's life is spent in aimlessly waiting about.