I wandered for many years, so long that I forgot that I possessed a soul. Where were you all this time? Which Beyond sheltered you and gave you sanctuary? Oh, that you must speak through me, that my speech and I are your symbol and expression! How should I decipher you?
expressionquotes
The dream-thoughts and the dream-content lie before us like two versions of the same content in two different languages, or rather, the dream-content looks to us like a translation of the dream-thoughts into another mode of expression, and we are supposed to get to know its signs and laws of grammatical construction by comparing the original and the translation.
construction / dream / expression / languages / translation
Truth that is naked is the most beautiful, and the simpler its expression the deeper is the impression it makes.
Now if we rid our minds of the idea that our language is the translation or cipher of an original text, we shall see that the idea of a complete expression is nonsensical, and that all language is indirect or allusive – that is, if you wish, silence.
expression / idea / language
Expression is like a step taken in the fog – no one can say where, if anywhere, it will lead.
What a gulf between impression and expression! That’s our ironic fate—to have Shakespearean feelings and (unless by some billion-to-one chance we happen to be Shakespeare) to talk about them like automobile salesmen or teen-agers or college professors. We practice alchemy in reverse—touch gold and it turns into lead; touch the pure lyrics of experience, and they turn into the verbal equivalents of tripe and hogwash.
Philosophy, as we use the word, is a fight against the fascination which forms of expression exert upon us.
The mechanism which we don’t understand is not anything in our soul, but rather that of the life of this expression.
expression / Life / soul