Blow the candle out, I don't need to see what my thoughts look like.
Interpretation
This quote reflects a desire to avoid confronting one's thoughts and the chaos they may bring.
Emile Zola's quote suggests that sometimes it is better to avoid introspection and the potential turmoil that can arise from examining our thoughts. The act of blowing out the candle symbolizes a desire to remain in the dark rather than face the illuminated complexities and harsh realities of one's own mind.
In practice
During a meditation retreat, someone might use this quote to explain the struggle with their inner thoughts.
I believe that all is illusion and vanity outside the treasure of truths slowly accumulated, and which will never again be lost. I believe that the sum of these truths, always increasing, will at last confer on man incalculable power and peace, if not happiness. Yes, I believe in the final triumph of life.
A ruined man fell from her hands like a ripe fruit, to lie rotting on the ground.
Oh, the fools, like a lot of good little schoolboys, scared to death of anything they've been taught is wrong!
Did not one spend the first half of one's days in dreams of happiness and the second half in regrets and terrors?
They dared not peer down into their own natures, down into the feverish confusion that filled their minds with a kind of dense, acrid mist.
If you ask me what I came into this life to do, I will tell you: I came to live out loud.
Seek always to do some good, somewhere. Every man has to seek in his own way to realize his true worth. You must give some time to your fellow man. For remember, you don't live in a world all your own. Your brothers are here too.
Look. This is your world! You can't not look. There is no other world. This is your world; it is your feast. You inherited this; you inherited these eyeballs; you inherited this world of color. Look at the greatness of the whole thing. Look! Don't hesitate - look! Open your eyes. Don't blink, and look, look - look further.
We are all jars of clay, fragile and poor, yet we carry within us an immense treasure.
Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all.
I am frankly sick and tired of the political preachers telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in A, B, C, and D. Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me?
When morals are sufficient, law is unnecessary; when morals are insufficient, law is unenforceable.
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