--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Total experiences, of which there are…" description: "\"Total experiences, of which there are many kinds, tend again and again to be apprehended only as revivals or translations of the religious imagination...." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6d7/susan-sontag-332_again-and-again_total-experiences-of-which-there-are-man_612593.jpg" --- # Total experiences, of which there are many kinds, tend… ![“Total experiences, of which there are many kinds, tend again and again to be apprehended only as revivals or translations of the religious imagination. To try to make a fresh way of talking at the most serious, ardent, and enthusiastic level, heading off the religious encapsulation, is one of the…” quote by Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6d7/susan-sontag-332_again-and-again_total-experiences-of-which-there-are-man_612593.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6d7/susan-sontag-332_again-and-again_total-experiences-of-which-there-are-man_612593.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6d7/susan-sontag-332_again-and-again_total-experiences-of-which-there-are-man_612593.jpg) > “Total experiences, of which there are many kinds, tend again and again to be apprehended only as revivals or translations of the religious imagination. To try to make a fresh way of talking at the most serious, ardent, and enthusiastic level, heading off the religious encapsulation, is one of the primary intellectual tasks of future thought.” [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Thought attempts to reframe serious discourse beyond religious frameworks, but often reverts to familiar religious motifs. **In simple terms:** New ideas still echo old beliefs. Key Takeaway Challenge entrenched metaphors. Themes religion language philosophy Mood critical intellectual Type philosophical theoretical When to use this quote - academic writing - public debates - media analysis Key Concepts cognitive framing cultural critique Questions to Reflect On - Can we truly escape religious metaphors? - What new vocabularies could replace them? A Different Perspective Secular language may still carry hidden religious assumptions. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Ardent](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/ardent/) [Enthusiastic](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/enthusiastic/) [Imagination](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/imagination/) [Intellectual](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/intellectual/) [Mysticism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/mysticism/) [Religion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/religion/) [Religious](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/religious/) [Revival](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/revival/) [Translations](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/translations/) [Way of talking](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/way-of-talking/) ## Related quotes > [Christianity is a religion which concerns us as we are here and now, creatures of body and soul. We do not "follow the footsteps…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/evelyn-underhill/christianity-is-a-religion-which-concerns-us-as-we-are-here-and-now/) [Evelyn Underhill](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/evelyn-underhill/) > [“We have no idea, now, of who or what the inhabitants of our future might be. In that sense, we have no future. Not…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-gibson/we-have-no-idea-now-of-who-or-what-the-inhabitants-of-our-future/) [William Gibson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-gibson/) > [“Give the future enough thought to be ready for it—but don’t worry about it. Live each day as if you were to die next…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-a-heinlein/give-the-future-enough-thought-to-be-ready-for-it-but-don-t-worry/) [Robert A. Heinlein](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-a-heinlein/) > [The future is only a thought form. Work with the present moment. Be with what is.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/eckhart-tolle/the-future-is-only-a-thought-form-work-with-the-present-moment-be/) [Eckhart Tolle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/eckhart-tolle/) > [I was from a generation that didn't think that far into the future. We thought opportunities would always exist, that we would be fifteen…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bebe-buell/i-was-from-a-generation-that-didn-t-think-that-far-into-the-future-we/) [Bebe Buell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bebe-buell/) > [“he thought about the future. He thought about where he was now and where he would have to be tomorrow, and the day after,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/santino-hassell/he-thought-about-the-future-he-thought-about-where-he-was-now-and/) [Santino Hassell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/santino-hassell/) > [“Of course,” he says, “we have no idea, now, of who or what the inhabitants of our future might be. In that sense, we…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-gibson/of-course-he-says-we-have-no-idea-now-of-who-or-what-the-inhabitants/) [William Gibson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-gibson/) > [“In Russia it is always the future that is thought of. It is the crops next year, it is the comfort that will come…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-steinbeck/in-russia-it-is-always-the-future-that-is-thought-of-it-is-the-crops/) [John Steinbeck](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-steinbeck/) > [“What Tengo would have to do, it seemed, was take a hard, honest look at the past while standing at the crossroads of the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/haruki-murakami/what-tengo-would-have-to-do-it-seemed-was-take-a-hard-honest-look-at/) [Haruki Murakami](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/haruki-murakami/) > [“Once, when Giselle was alive, he thought about the future. Now he only thought about the past.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mitch-albom/once-when-giselle-was-alive-he-thought-about-the-future-now-he-only/) [Mitch Albom](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mitch-albom/) > [“Welcome to the future, she thought, surveying all this wordage and tat. All our tragedies and triumphs, our lives and deaths, our shames and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/iain-m-banks/welcome-to-the-future-she-thought-surveying-all-this-wordage-and-tat/) [Iain M. Banks](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/iain-m-banks/) > [“Ah, how quickly the hands on the clock circle toward the future we thought was far away! And how soon we become our mothers.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/peggy-toney-horton/ah-how-quickly-the-hands-on-the-clock-circle-toward-the-future-we/) [Peggy Toney Horton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/peggy-toney-horton/) > [I've always enjoyed stories that take place in the future but my one disappointment was that the future books described never came. We're not…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/albert-brooks/i-ve-always-enjoyed-stories-that-take-place-in-the-future-but-my-one/) [Albert Brooks](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/albert-brooks/) > [We can only die in the future, I thought; right now we are always alive.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/amy-hempel/we-can-only-die-in-the-future-i-thought-right-now-we-are-always-alive/) [Amy Hempel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/amy-hempel/) > [My characters don't talk necessarily in a normal American way of talking. They talk a little different.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ntozake-shange/my-characters-don-t-talk-necessarily-in-a-normal-american-way-of/) [Ntozake Shange](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ntozake-shange/) ## More by Susan Sontag > [the appetite for thinking must be regulated, as all sensible people know, for it may stifle one's life.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-appetite-for-thinking-must-be-regulated-as-all-sensible-people/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [We are ruled by quotations.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/we-are-ruled-by-quotations/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Unfortunately, moral beauty in art - like physical beauty in a person - is extremely perishable. It is nowhere so durable as artistic or…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/unfortunately-moral-beauty-in-art-like-physical-beauty-in-a-person-is/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Like the collector, the photographer is animated by a passion that, even when it appears to be for the present, is linked to a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/like-the-collector-the-photographer-is-animated-by-a-passion-that/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [ Anthropology has always struggled with an intense, fascinated repulsion towards its subject… \[The anthropologist\] submits himself to the exotic to confirm his own inner… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/anthropology-has-always-struggled-with-an-intense-fascinated/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [“Why not eliminate schooling between age 12-16? It’s biologically + psychologically too turbulent a time to be cooped up inside, made to sit all…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/why-not-eliminate-schooling-between-age-12-16-it-s-biologically/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [To photograph people is to violate them, by seeing them as they never see themselves, by having knowledge of them that they can never…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/to-photograph-people-is-to-violate-them-by-seeing-them-as-they-never/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [One set of messages of the society we live in is: Consume. Grow. Do what you want. Amuse yourselves. The very working of this…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/one-set-of-messages-of-the-society-we-live-in-is-consume-grow-do-what/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Currently intellectuals in Western Europe and North America are extremely demoralized and shaken by the rise of a virulent conservative tendency (which some have…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/currently-intellectuals-in-western-europe-and-north-america-are/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [With the modern diseases (once TB, now cancer) the romantic idea that the disease expresses the character is invariably extended to assert that the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/with-the-modern-diseases-once-tb-now-cancer-the-romantic-idea-that/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [As objects of contemplation, images of the atrocious can answer to several different needs. To steel oneself against weakness. To make oneself more numb.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/as-objects-of-contemplation-images-of-the-atrocious-can-answer-to/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [The creative phase of an idea coincides with the period during which it insists, cantankerously, on its boundaries, on what makes it different; but…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-creative-phase-of-an-idea-coincides-with-the-period-during-which/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Photographs objectify: they turn an event or a person into something that can be possessed.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/photographs-objectify-they-turn-an-event-or-a-person-into-something/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [I'm not interested in giving aid and comfort to the neo­-Conservatives.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/i-m-not-interested-in-giving-aid-and-comfort-to-the-neo-conservatives/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [The feminist movement has been important to me because it's made me feel less odd and also because it has made me understand some…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-feminist-movement-has-been-important-to-me-because-it-s-made-me/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) [Explore all 644 Susan Sontag quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) ## More Again and again quotes > [A human being can only absorb a small amount of the mystical kundalini, you can be exposed again and again to it, but it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frederick-lenz/a-human-being-can-only-absorb-a-small-amount-of-the-mystical/) [Frederick Lenz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frederick-lenz/) > [As in any machine, all the wires must be connected to the mains through one main wire. 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So you go…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anne-lamott/again-and-again-i-tell-god-i-need-help-and-god-says-well-isn-t-that/) [Anne Lamott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anne-lamott/) > [After this happens again and again, we reach a point were there is nothing but satori, which is what nirvikalpa samadhi is like.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frederick-lenz/after-this-happens-again-and-again-we-reach-a-point-were-there-is/) [Frederick Lenz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frederick-lenz/) > [Listen, the story of the United States is this: One kid, without anything, walks out of his house, down the road, with nothing but…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/t-bone-burnett/listen-the-story-of-the-united-states-is-this-one-kid-without/) [T Bone Burnett](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/t-bone-burnett/) > [The regular division of the plane into congruent figures evoking an association in the observer with a familiar natural object is one of these…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/m-c-escher/the-regular-division-of-the-plane-into-congruent-figures-evoking-an/) [M. 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Go on closing the chapters that you have read; there is no need to go back again…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rajneesh/don-t-be-unnecessarily-burdened-by-the-past-go-on-closing-the/) [Rajneesh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rajneesh/) > [The difference between a winner and a loser - they both failed, but the winner gets back up and does it again and again…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/greg-plitt/the-difference-between-a-winner-and-a-loser-they-both-failed-but-the/) [Greg Plitt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/greg-plitt/) > [Owning the intellectual property is like owning land: You need to keep investing in it again and again to get a payoff; you can't…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/esther-dyson/owning-the-intellectual-property-is-like-owning-land-you-need-to-keep/) [Esther Dyson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/esther-dyson/) > [The key to longevity is to keep doing what you do better than anyone else. We work real hard at that. 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