. . . money . . . is really the difference between men and animals, most of the things men feel, animals feel, and vice versa, but animals do not know about money.
Gertrude SteinRead
You are so afraid of losing your moral sense that you are not willing to take it through anything more dangerous than a mud-puddle.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the importance of testing one's moral values through challenges rather than avoiding risks.
Gertrude Stein's quote speaks to the idea that in order to truly understand and strengthen one's moral conviction, it is essential to face more significant challenges and temptations than mere trivial situations. It suggests that a fear of losing one's moral compass can lead to a stagnant existence, where individuals do not engage with deeper, more complex moral dilemmas that could help solidify their beliefs and character.
Themes
CourageMoralityChallengesGrowthFear
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about personal growth, one might reference this quote to encourage individuals to embrace life's challenges.
More from Gertrude Stein
All quotes βThe creator of the new composition in the arts is an outlaw until he is a classic.
Gertrude SteinRead
If the communication is perfect, the words have life, and that is all there is to good writing, putting down on the paper words which dance and weep and make love and fight and kiss and perform miracles.
Gertrude SteinRead
The United States is just now the oldest country in the world, there always is an oldest country and she is it, it is she who is the mother of the twentieth century civilization. She began to feel herself as it just after the Civil War. And so it is a country the right age to have been born in and the wrong age to live in.
Gertrude SteinRead
I simply contend that the middle-class ideal which demands that people be affectionate, respectable, honest and content, that they avoid excitements and cultivate serenity is the ideal that appeals to me, it is in short the ideal of affectionate family life, of honorable business methods.
Gertrude SteinRead
It is natural to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes to that siren until she allures us to our death.
Gertrude SteinRead
Similar quotes
I suppose I've always done my share of crying, especially when there's no other way to contain my feelings. I know that men ain't supposed to cry, but I think that's wrong. Crying's always been a way for me to get things out which are buried deep, deep down. When I sing, I often cry. Crying is feeling, and feeling is being human. Oh yes, I cry.
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I just was built with an innate ability to not let fear guide me in how I run my life.
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Bear patiently, my heart, for you have suffered heavier things.
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To have courage for whatever comes in life - everything lies in that.
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I was already beginning to realize that the only way to conduct oneself in a situation where bombs rained down and bullets whizzed past, was to accept the dangers and all the consequences as calmly as possible. Fretting and sweating about it all was not going to help.
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So many people grew up with challenges, as I did. There weren't always happy things happening to me or around me. But when you look at the core of goodness within yourself - at the optimism and hope - you realize it comes from the environment you grew up in.
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