the hardness and softness of things

The dialectic of hard and soft governs every image with which we picture to ourselves the inner nature of things . . . From hard and soft we learn of the multiple paths of progress, acquiring quite different measures of temporal efficiency. The hardness and softness of things engage us in an entirely other kind of dynamic life. The resistant world lifts us out of our static reality, beyond ourselves, initiating us into the mysteries of energy. Henceforth we are awakened beings. Hammer or trowel in hand, we no longer stand alone–we have an adversary, something to accomplish. However insignificant it may be, we have, as a result of this, a cosmic destiny.

-- Gaston Bachelard, from Earth and Reveries of Will
Tr. Kenneth Haltman

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