Even better if you can provide your own understanding of its meaning.
Mine would be :
“Nothing kills a man as much as being forced to represent a country” (and err considering the context, I must stress it has nothing to do with the current US shitshow), by a WW1 soldier, illustrator and writer named Jacques Vaché.
For me it just means being forced into representing a group (national, of course, but maybe also social, racial, sexual, professional, any kind of group) or defining one’s identity only by reference to a group is to be avoided at all costs.
Note : Its not the same, imho, as engaging in a collective struggle or defense against a common oppression.
How about you?
Something my grandpa said, sometime around 2006-2007 I think.
“The next world war, will be between the rich and and the poor, and the rich will win before the poor knows there’s a war.”
The opposite of love is not hate, but apathy.
Truly hating something takes passion, energy and time out of your day. It also taught me that for masters of personal interest, if you truly need to end a relationship with someone, you simply stop responding. It’s far more effective than loudly proclaiming what you feel they do wrong. That will take far more away from you than if you cut ties.
the opposite of 2 is not 0
“True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut
“Hurt people hurt people”
Ever since I heard this, I became relatively more compassionate towards people, even if they piss me off.
This makes a song I’ve been listening to make more sense. “Gary” by Dave Hause. I was interpreting the line as “Hurt People. Hurt people…” Instead of “Hurt people hurt people”. Thanks!
“It’ll never be the same”
In context, meaning that things can never go back to the way they were… Ever.For me it’s like a grounding statement. Whenever I start thinking about some past time and just want things to go back to how they were, I remember this. My mind shifts to the future and I forget that nostalgic feeling because I remember that it can never be.
Oh, yeah. There’s another one like this for me, a very short poem I read when I was a teenager :
“Ah, what are they dreaming…? Those who say, say, say… Yesterday I was there, today I was here”
“Feelings are like children, you can’t let them drive, but you can’t put them in the trunk.”
But I feel that one has a ¨spiritual parent¨:
“Educate a child so you don’t have to reprimand an adult.”
and a ¨spiritual sibling¨:
“If your only tool is a Hammer then every problem looks like a Nail.”
“Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in your heart.” - Winnie-the-Pooh
I didn’t read Winnie-the-Pooh till I was an adult and when I read this it felt like reading a universal truth everyone should know. It nearly brought me to tears.
It sounds like you might like “The Tao of Pooh”.
“When you do things right, people won’t be sure you’ve done anything at all.” -A clump of talking stars in Futurama I look at it like being a good custodian or someone who takes pride in the smallest details of their work, regardless of whether or not you receive recognition for them. Most people don’t notice the effort being put in when things are running smoothly. The work of the people behind the scenes is directly responsible for successes in the spotlight.
The woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those who sang best
That’ll do Donkey… That’ll do.
Edit. I mean it. That calming way shrek says it. The idea that enough has been done, and that everything is OK. That I’m ok. It’s a lovely, and powerful moment in the film that translates to so many day to day situations.
That’s so lovely!
The less you know about your history, the easier it is to imagine you’d always be on the right side of it.
Not so much a quote as a poem, but it’s brief so here’s the whole thing:
They fuck you up, your mum and dad. They may not mean to, but they do. They fill you with the faults they had And add some extra, just for you.
But they were fucked up in their turn By fools in old-style hats and coats, Who half the time were soppy-stern And half at one another’s throats.
Man hands on misery to man, It deepens like a coastal shelf. Get out as early as you can, And don’t have any kids yourself.
- “This Be the Verse” by Philip Larkin
As for what it means to me, I think it speaks for itself. It’s bleak and devastating, yet beautiful. I love the elegance and simplicity of the writing. It’s the only poem I have memorized because it’s so aesthetically pleasing and emotionally resonant. It has stuck with me since I first heard it over 10 years ago.
It’s beautiful and I can understand why it sticks… Thanks for letting us know!!
“No matter where you go, there you are.”
Made absolutely no sense to me when I was younger. Now, I get that it means changing one’s location or situation in an effort to avoid something doesn’t work. You’re still you, you’re there, and the problem still exists. Obviously some situations can be improved by leaving them, so the statement isn’t completely correct, but there’s plenty of truth to it.
“You can never go home again” also used to bug me, because of course you can physically return to the places you grew up. But if you’ve been away a good while the place you grew up in might have changed, the people will have changed, and you will also have changed. Home will be where you have made a new life. Your old home will be like trying to put on a shoe you haven’t worn in a few years. Yeah, it fits, but it doesn’t feel right. It’s not comfortable like it used to feel. Home isn’t there anymore. I kinda envy some people that I know who never left my hometown. They have the same friends, been hanging out for years, still get together for family stuff…but at the same time I’ve experienced a shitload more than they have. My original home doesn’t exist for me anymore.
My wife struggles with that second one a lot and I wish I knew how to help her.
Ramble
She’s built up this golden fantasy of her childhood and where she’s from, and she blames so much of what I file away as “normal life bs” on where we live now. Every time we visit her hometown I see the same problems there that she blames on where we live.
She has a hard time seeing the benefits of where we live now because she grew up in a tight knit extended family that closed the gaps so to speak. But that extended family has drifted apart. People have grown up. The old matriarchs and patriarchs have passed. That same tight knit family doesn’t exist anymore in the way it used to.
She basically had a high quality, premade social group and support structure just handed to her growing up. She moved states and life events kept getting in the way of her building a new one. But she blames that on location rather than what is now a lack of effort. Issues she overlooked long ago (and still) with family are things she can’t let go of when faced with them in potential friends.
And ultimately, the loss of these things just brings her sadness and depression. She’s not in a state where she’s interested in trying to make it work beyond saying she wants to verbally. Pretty textbook depression but there’s complications right now in the way of her seeking help.
Apologies for the ramble/off my chest shit.
Sorry you and your wife are dealing with that. Kinda reminds me of an old saw: within two years of marriage you will move to within two miles of your mother in law. Sounds like maybe that’s what your wife was after with the support structure of family. FWIW “benefits” might be subjective…what one person considers beneficial may not have the same importance to another.
“You can never go home again… but you can shop there.”
"They say, ‘Evil prevails when good men fail to act.’ What they ought to say is, ‘Evil prevails.’
Bleak quote from Lord of War that has stuck with me. Reminds me of Sophie Scholl.
I am reminded of: “The law cannot protect anyone unless it binds everyone; and it cannot bind anyone unless it protects everyone.”
The lesser known conclusion to Wilhoits Law.
https://crookedtimber.org/2018/03/21/liberals-against-progressives/
"Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit:
There must be in-groups whom the law protectes but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect."
I would rather have questions that cannot be answered than answers that cannot be questioned.
Richard Feynman
