1)What's the point of this quote by Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore?
A mind all logic is like knife all blade. It bleeds the hand that uses it.
I had to read the quote once, twice and thrice and then was I able to graph out the meaning of syllables.
This is what a quote should be, no cheesy dialogue no extensive use of verbs, just plain simple “logic”
Let's work on the quote, quote is quite confusing at first, I'm not driven by impulse which made me sit
down and look at it with ease, otherwise It could have been pronounced grammatically incorrect by an
intellectual.
Let's now break the quote into three parts.
First:- A mind all logic.
A mind which is fully governed by logic, without any fundamental knowledge about the topic on which
decision is made.
Second:- Is like a knife all blade.
What is more useful blade of knife or its handle? Both equally. The writer (used for sake of writing the
answer) Is now drawing a connection between the two phrases linked by the conjuction “is”. A parallel
has been drawn which suggests logic could only be so much important that it can't overrule the need of
having knowledge aboit the think.
Third:- Makes the hand that uses it bleed.
No platonic explanation needed here, it's quite simple and easy to understand if you have understood
what was said before. Now both the sentences earlier are compared to an reaction.
What would you expect squeezing the blade of knife with your hand? Blood! While for the other
sentence we can assume blood to be symbolic to “pain”.
I must admit this is one of the best piece of phrases I have ever seen, make no independent sense, but
culmilatively mean the world.
2)Rabindranath Tagore actually wrote this quote after experiencing a tragedy.
According to him this quote is something which describes how a person's mindset
should be….
It is that the person should have both logical and sense of brain. Before explaining the
point let me solve this question with an example….
You are already being late to your work and you rush miss your bus. All of a sudden you
find a person met with an accident. The question here is would you continue and own
your own business or stay there and help him…!?!?
Your logical brain tells you to continue your work, where as the emotion brain tells you
to help the man ..
As simple as that. If you are totally logically trained then you can stay all alone and this
may turn you as senseless person. We can control our actions in many ways. It may be
logical and emotion full. But the thing is we could and should balance these two
emotions.
According to me ,I would control my mind both the aspects and suggest you all to follow
the same.
3)A mind all logic is like knife all blade. It bleeds the hand that uses it.
I had to read the quote once, twice and thrice and then was I able to graph out the
meaning of syllables. This is what a quote should be, no cheesy dialogue no extensive
use of verbs, just plain simple “logic”
Let's work on the quote, quote is quite confusing at first, I'm not driven by impulse
which made me sit down and look at it with ease, otherwise It could have been
pronounced grammatically incorrect by an intellectual.
Let's now break the quote into three parts.
First:- A mind all logic.
A mind which is fully governed by logic, without any fundamental knowledge about the
topic on which decision is made.
Second:- Is like a knife all blade.
What is more useful blade of knife or its handle? Both equally. The writer (used for sake
of writing the answer) Is now drawing a connection between the two phrases linked by
the conjuction “is”. A parallel has been drawn which suggests logic could only be so
much important that it can't overrule the need of having knowledge aboit the think.
Third:- Makes the hand that uses it bleed.
No platonic explanation needed here, it's quite simple and easy to understand if you
have understood what was said before. Now both the sentences earlier are compared to
an reaction.
What would you expect squeezing the blade of knife with your hand? Blood! While for
the other sentence we can assume blood to be symbolic to “pain”.
I must admit this is one of the best piece of phrases I have ever seen, make no
independent sense, but culmilatively mean the world.
4) All logic and no emotion makes Jack a madman. Simply if you used a knife which was
all blade and had no protection, you would cut yourself and bleed. He compared that to
a mind that was all logic and nothing else. A person having such Mind would go mad.
That’s how I read it.
5) The effective use of a knife requires that one may get a good grip on it; without a grip
holding a blade by the hand would only make one bleed. The quote is not against reason;
if you reduce reason to a method - to a logic then it would have been against reason but
reason implies being rational which is not just in a skill to use logic. Any rational inquiry
requires not just a method or a logic but also a direction that determines the context of
inquiry; which direction itself cannot be had by a method or a rule but requires mature
judgment or insight. To be rational is to be in control and keep the instrument - logic in
control - to subordinate the method to the goal or else we would have in Husserl’s words
a ‘logic that does not understand itself’. Tagore himself never derided reason as a survey
of his writings and poems would inform us. In his poem, ‘Where the mind is without
fear’, he describes reason as a clear stream; the analogy intended as showing reason to
have the ability to purge all superstitions and prejudices. Hence the present quote
should not be interpreted as a criticism of reason as such. Just as a blade is useless
without a grip - a logic - is useless without rationality or rational control; one does not
become logical through relentless application of a method but one becomes logical by
being logical. This seems to me to be the meaning. One may take this quote to mean that
logic without a compassionate heart is useless - a view Tagore would have endorsed but
it is not implied in the analogy.
6) A mind all logic is like a knife all blade. It makes the hand bleed that uses it.
A mind which is all logic is a mind which functions strictly on reason and sound ideas. A
mind which works with a mathematical precision. A mind which is removed from
emotions. A no -nonsense mind which is uncompromising and dull -because of too
much of orderliness and too much consistency of reasoning. A mind which lacks variety.
A mind which is colourless and passionless.
Such a mind is like a knife which is all blade. A knife whose handgrip as well, is as sharp
as its cutting edge. A knife which will make the the hand bleed.
Thus, a mind which works strictly according to logic, which is rigid and unemotional,
will make the heart bleed; the heart of the person who uses that mind- the heart of the
person whom that mind belongs to.
7) I think it means that just as a knife needs a handle along with the blade, so that that
we can use it properly without getting hurt, to live life fully we need more than a purely
logical mind. A little bit of fancy, imagination makes life worth living. A purely logical
person will never be able to appreciate all the quirks and intricacies that characterise
this beautiful world that we inhabit. And so much of human relationships depend of
emotions and feelings that it would be a folly to rely simply on logic to navigate our lives,
that we would ultimately end up causing damage to our own lives and relationships.
There is a book by Charles Dickens called ‘Hard Times’ that had a somewhat similar
moral to give. Check it out if you're interested.
A knife comprises of both the handle and the blade. Similarly a mind needs to be
comprised of both Logic and Imagination. If the knife is “all blade” with no handle, it
will hurt the hand that holds it. A mind with only Logic and no Imagination will
eventually kill the creative potential of the individual.
A mind all logic is like a knife all blade it makes the hand bleed that uses it
A mind working on logic without humane values such as compassion, sympathy,
empathy, care, respect, love, etc. is exactly like a sharp knife that will cut all those who
will mishandle it. Without the above mentioned values human mind becomes evil. In
place of the good values, it operates under the influence of nefarious and immoral
tendencies such as greed, malice, jealousy, hatred, selfishness, etc., which always harm
others and give deeper cuts than a real knife.
In the history of mankind much damage to civilization and our planet has been done by
those humans who just lived under the influence of cold, apathetic, logic mind. All the
wars, conflicts, conspiracies, etc. were the products of the inhumane logical mind only.
Wise men and women tried to teach mankind through beautiful plays, stories, novels,
etc. how the insidious logic minds work and how to keep it under control; however, the
mankind has learnt very slowly from them.
All great seers, prophets, messiahs, leaders, philosophers, and teachers of mankind were
men of humane and divine emotions. They tamed their logic under the humane values
and made the world a better place. Jesus had compassion on all the sick and needy and
healed them. Lincoln had compassion for the slaves, who were human beings also, and
worked for their emancipation.
In conclusion, we can say that we must not carry the sharpness of cold logic in our
minds only, we should call the warmth of love and compassion in it too.
