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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.

— René Daumal A Night of Serious Drinking (1938)

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Communication

More quotes by René Daumal

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.

The Lie of the Truth (1938)

Each time dawn appears, the mystery is there in its entirety.

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.

A Night of Serious Drinking (1938)

You cannot always stay on the summits. You have to come down again . . .

Mount Analogue (1952)

These are no doubt more methodical and complete, but are intelligible only after a little preliminary experience. The entire aim of these notes is to help the beginner acquire this preliminary experience a little faster.

All René Daumal quotes →

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Strength of creative writing lies in the skill of handling words and articulating artistic expression of feelings.”

Suman Pokhrel

An entire mythology is stored within our language.

Ludwig Wittgenstein Philosophical Occasions 1912-1951 (1993)

Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving us wordy evidence of the fact.

George Eliot

Just at the age 'twixt boy and youth,
When thought is speech, and speech is truth.

Walter Scott Marmion (1808)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: René Daumal (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.