The power of understanding symbols, i.e. of regarding everything about a sense-datum as irrelevant except a certain form that it embodies, is the most characteristic mental trait of mankind. It issues in an unconscious, spontaneous process of abstraction, which goes… — Susanne Katherina Langer Copy Share Image
It is the historical mind, rather than the scientific (in the physicist's sense), that destroyed the mythical orientation of European culture; the historian, not the mathematician, introduced the "higher criticism," the standard of actual fact. It is he who is… — Susanne Katherina Langer Copy Share Image
the wide discrepancy between reason and feeling may be unreal; it is not improbable that intellect is a high form of feeling - a… — Susanne Katherina Langer Copy Share Image
Magic, then, is not a method, but a language; it is part and parcel of that greater phenomenon, ritual, which is the language of… — Susanne Katherina Langer Copy Share Image
Most new discoveries are suddenly-seen things that were always there. A new idea is a light that illuminates presences which simply had no form… — Susanne Katherina Langer Copy Share Image
Art is just as comprehensible as science, but in its own terms. — Susanne Katherina Langer Copy Share Image
Music is 'significant form,' and its significance is that of a symbol, a highly articulated, sensuous object, which by virtue of its dynamic structure… — Susanne Katherina Langer Copy Share Image
The historian does not locate known facts in a hypothetical, general pattern of processes; his aim is to link fact to fact, one unique… — Susanne Katherina Langer Copy Share Image
The Past, being in the mode of memory, is closed, inalienable, and irreparable. — Susanne Katherina Langer Copy Share Image
We have no physical model of this endless rhythm of individuation and involvement, we do have its image in the world of art, most… — Susanne Katherina Langer Copy Share Image
The intellectual treatment of any datum, any experience, any subject, is determined by the nature of our questions, and only carried out in the… — Susanne Katherina Langer Copy Share Image
The fairytale is irresponsible; it is frankly imaginary, and its purpose is to gratify wishes, as a dream doth flatter. — Susanne Katherina Langer Copy Share Image
Common-sense knowledge is prompt, categorical, and inexact. — Susanne Katherina Langer Copy Share Image
