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No, it's not that they're bad. It's that they're obliged to pretend they're good. They've been brought up to deceive and be cunning, to protect themselves from our society. I don't want to be like that.
Carlos Fuentes
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Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote highlights the conflict between societal expectations and true self-identity.

Carlos Fuentes emphasizes the societal pressure that forces individuals to disguise their true nature for self-protection. He expresses a desire to remain genuine rather than conform to the deceptive behaviors that society often encourages.

Themes

SocietyDeceptionIdentityGenuinenessHonesty

In practice

Example use cases

In a speech about authenticity in the workplace, this quote can serve as a powerful reminder to be true to oneself.

More from Carlos Fuentes

The possibility of being as free with the camera as we are with the pen is a fantastic prospect for the creative life of the 21st century.
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Writing is a struggle against silence.
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Literature overtakes history, for literature gives you more than one life. It expands experience and opens new opportunities to readers.
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One wants to tell a story, like Scheherezade, in order not to die. It's one of the oldest urges in mankind. It's a way of stalling death.
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You have an absolute freedom in Mexican writing today in which you don't necessarily have to deal with the Mexican identity. You know why? Because we have an identity... We know who we are. We know what it means to be a Mexican.
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What's happened at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq is one of the grossest violations of human rights under the Geneva Conventions that we have record of. It is simply monstrous.
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