A man looks at the sea, and the sea says something to him. It makes an impression on his mind. It awakens his memory, and this impression depends upon his experience - upon his intellectual capacity. Another looks upon the same sea. He has a different brain; he has a different experience. The sea may speak to him of joy, to the other of grief and tears. The sea cannot tell the same thing to any two human beings, because no two human beings have had the same experience.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- The sea evokes different impressions in different people based on their unique experiences and mental capacities.
- In plain terms
- People see different things in the sea depending on their own lives.
- What can you take from it?
- Personal experience shapes how we interpret the world.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How does your past shape what you see?
- Can two people truly see the same thing?
Another view
It overlooks shared human experiences that might create similar impressions.
More from Robert G. Ingersoll
A man is not moral because he is obedient through fear or ignorance. Morality lives in the realm of perceived obligation.
Permalink to quote #80 A true marriage is a natural concord and agreement of souls, a harmony in which discord is not even imagined; it is a mingling so perfect that only one seems t…
Permalink to quote #82 A good deed is the best prayer.
Permalink to quote #79
Related quotes
Yet the stones remain less real to those who cannot name them, or read the mute syllables graven in silica. To see a red stone is less than seeing it as jasper…
Dana GioiaDana Gioia quote #5 I took opium but once - in the year of the plague, when doctors sought to deaden the agonies they could not cure. There was an overdose - my physician was worn…
H. P. LovecraftH. P. Lovecraft quote #26 It is human, I think, when we encounter the marvelous to try and bring away some of it with us
Alice BorchardtAlice Borchardt quote #31