Among the agonies of these after days is that chief of torments - inarticulateness. What I learned and saw in those hours of impious exploration can never be told - for want of symbols or suggestions in any language. I say this because from first to last our discoveries partook only of the nature of sensations; sensations correlated with no impression which the nervous system of normal humanity is capable of receiving. They were sensations, yet within them lay unbelievable elements of time and space - things which at bottom possess no distinct and definite existence. Human utterance can best convey the general character of our experiences by calling them plungings or soarings...
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- The speaker claims that certain cosmic sensations experienced during exploration are beyond human language and cannot be described.
- In plain terms
- What I experienced is impossible to describe because human language lacks the words for it.
- What can you take from it?
- Some experiences exceed the limits of human communication.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Can anything be truly indescribable?
- What can you not put into words?
Another view
It assumes the experience is real rather than imagined or psychological.
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