Henri Bergson
Henri Bergson
Henri-Louis Bergsonwas a major French philosopher, influential especially in the first half of the 20th century. Bergson convinced many thinkers that the processes of immediate experience and intuition are more significant than abstract rationalism and science for understanding reality...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth18 October 1859
CountryFrance
men essence pay
It is of man's essence to create materially and morally, to fabricate things and to fabricate himself. Homo faber is the definition I propose ... Homo faber, Homo sapiens, I pay my respects to both, for they tend to merge.
nature men emotion
The emotion felt by a man in the presence of nature certainly counts for something in the origin of religions.
war men europe
Europe is overpopulated, the world will soon be in the same condition, and if the self-reproduction of man is not rationalized... we shall have war.
army animal men
All the living hold together, and all yield to the same tremendous push. The animal takes its stand on the plant, man bestrides animality, and the whole of humanity, in space and in time, is one immense army galloping beside and before and behind each of us in an overwhelming charge able to beat down every resistance and clear the most formidable obstacles, perhaps even death.
thinking men action
ACT as men of thought; THINK as men of action.
responsibility men hands
...Men do not sufficiently realize that their future is in their own hands. Theirs is the task of determining first of all whether they want to go on living or not. Theirs is the responsibility, then, for deciding if they want merely to live, or intend to make just the extra effort required for fulfilling, even on this refractory planet, the essential function of the universe, which is a machine for the making of gods.
men inferiority characteristics
We regard intelligence as man's main characteristic and we know that there is no superiority which intelligence cannot confer on us, no inferiority for which it cannot compensate.
action birth cannot centre destined move object
My body, an object destined to move other objects, is, then, a centre of action ; it cannot give birth to a representation.
Sex appeal is the keynote of our civilization.
cure fault french-scientist laughable vanity
The only cure for vanity is laughter, and the only fault that is laughable is vanity.
against consciousness earliest fain follows french-scientist infancy join leaning leave portals present
In its entirety, probably, it follows us at every instant; all that we have felt, thought and willed from our earliest infancy is there, leaning over the present which is about to join it, pressing against the portals of consciousness that would fain leave it outside.
action aspects exactly influence itself lay limits matter measures moment objects occupies organs parts prepare thus virtual
The body, by the place which at each moment it occupies in the universe, indicates the parts and the aspects of matter on which we can lay hold: our perception, which exactly measures our virtual action on things, thus limits itself to the objects which actually influence our organs and prepare our movements.
act means perceive perception
To perceive means to immobilize. We seize, in the act of perception, something which outruns perception itself.
call external french-scientist images transmit
I see plainly how external images influence the image that I call my body: they transmit movement to it.