Rene Daumal Professions : Writer Born : March 16, 1908 Died : May 21, 1944 Browse All Authors Top 16 quotes by Rene Daumal You cannot stay on the summit forever; you have to come down again. So why bother in the first place? Just this: What is above knows what is below, but what is below does not know what is above. One climbs, one sees. One descends, one sees no longer, but one has seen. There is an art of conducting oneself in the lower regions by the memory of what one saw higher up. When one can no longer see, one can at least still know. Rene Daumal learning memories art It is still not enough for language to have clarity and content... it must also have a goal and an imperative. Otherwise from language we descend to chatter, from chatter to babble and from babble to confusion. Rene Daumal confusion goal writing I am dead because I have no desire, Rene Daumal desire giving thinking Truth is one, but error proliferates. Man tracks it down and cuts it up into little pieces hoping to turn it into grains of truth. But the ultimate atom will always essentially be an error, a miscalculation. Rene Daumal errors cutting men Definition: Alpinism is the art of going through the mountains confronting the greatest dangers with the biggest of cares. What we call art here, is the application of a knowledge to an action. Rene Daumal climbing mountain art ...the most serious thing, and the strangest, is that we are afraid to the point of panic, not so much of seeing ourselves as of being seen by ourselves. This is our root absurdity. What is behind this great fear? Rene Daumal serious-things panic roots Philosophy teaches how man thinks he thinks; but drinking shows how he really thinks. Rene Daumal drinking men philosophy In the mythic tradition, the Mountain is the bond between Earth and Sky. Its solitary summit reaches the sphere of eternity, and its base spreads out in manifold foothills into the world of mortals. It is the way by which man can raise himself to the divine and by which the divine can reveal itself to man. Rene Daumal mountain sky men Each time dawn appears, the mystery is there in its entirety. Rene Daumal nature morning inspirational When feet doesn't want to hold you, you climb with your head. Maybe it isn't the natural order of things, but isn't it better to walk with your head than to think with your feet, as it happens so frequently? Rene Daumal climbing order thinking The door to the invisible must be visible. Rene Daumal visible invisible doors A knife is neither true nor false, but anyone impaled on its blade is in error. Rene Daumal blades knives errors Common experience is the gold reserve which confers an exchange value on the currency which words are; without this reserve of shared experiences, all our pronouncements are checks drawn on insufficient funds. Rene Daumal autism change gold Art has a double face, of expression and illusion, just like science has a double face: the reality of error and the phantom of truth. Rene Daumal truth science art Words are made for a certain exactness of thought, as tears are for a certain degree of pain. What is least distinct cannot be named; what is clearest is unutterable. Rene Daumal degrees pain tears Man is head, chest and stomach. Each of these animals operates, more often than not, individually. I eat, I feel, I even, although rarely, think... This jungle crawls and teems, is hungry, roars, gets angry, devours itself, and its cacophonic concert does not even stop when you are asleep. Rene Daumal animal men thinking Similar Authors Ihab Hassan writer Ingmar Bergman writer Isabella Bird writer Ivan E. Coyote writer Al Feldstein writer Bert Sugar writer All Authors
