It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question.
Explanation separates us from astonishment, which is the only gateway to the incomprehensible.
I read a page of Plato's great work. I can no longer understand
anything, because behind the words on the page, which have their own
heavenly brightness, to be sure, there shines an even brighter, an
enormous, dazzling -why- that blots out everything, cancels out,
destroys all meaning. All individual intelligence. When one has
understood, one stops, satisfied with what one has understood. I do not
understand. Understanding is far too little. To have understood is to be
fixed, immobilized. It is as though one wanted to stop on one step in
the middle of a staircase, or with one foot in the void and the other on
the endless stair. But a mere why, a new why can set one off again, can
unpetrify what was petrified and everything starts flowing afresh. How
can one understand? One cannot.
Quotes by Eugene Ionesco
- What questions do you ponder?
- To what extent have we lost the power to be astonished, to be in awe?
- What can help to restore feelings of wonder?
