He said that people who loved [animals] to excess were capable of the worst cruelties toward human beings. He said that dogs were not loyal but servile, that cats were opportunists and traitors, that peacocks were heralds of death, that macaws were simply decorative annoyances, that rabbits fomented greed, that monkeys carried the fever of lust, and that roosters were damned because they had been complicit in the three denials of Christ.
The children would remember for the rest of their lives the august solemnity with which their father, devastated by his prolonged vigil and by the wraith of his imagination, revealed his discovery to them: 'The world is round, like an orange.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects the profound impact that a father's revelation can have on his children's understanding of the world.
In this quote, Gabriel Garcia Marquez describes a pivotal moment where a father shares a significant truth about the nature of the world with his children. The gravity of his delivery, shaped by his emotional and mental struggles, underscores the importance of the knowledge being imparted. This moment not only enlightens the children but also etches the memory of their father’s devotion and insight into their minds, illustrating the blend of personal experience and universal truths that can resonate throughout one’s life.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech at a graduation ceremony, one might use this quote to discuss the lasting impact of parental influence.
More from Gabriel Garcia Marquez
All quotes →Amputees suffer pains, cramps, itches in the leg that is no longer there. That is how she felt without him, feeling his presence where he no longer was.
She had the revelation one Sunday that while the other instruments played for everyone the violen played for her alone .
He sank into the rocking chair, the same one in which Rebecca had sat during the early days of the house to give embroidery lessons, and in which Amaranta had played Chinese checkers with Colonel Gerineldo Marquez, and in which Amarana Ursula had sewn the tiny clothing for the child, and in that flash of lucidity he became aware that he was unable to bear in his soul the crushing weight of so much past.
Nobody deserves your tears, but whoever deserves them will not make you cry.
Both described at the same time how it was always March there and always Monday, and then they understood that José Arcadio Buendía was not as crazy as the family said, but that he was the only one who had enough lucidity to sense the truth of the fact that time also stumbled and had accidents and could therefore splinter and leave an eternalized fragment in a room.
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In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity.
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When we try to avoid one fault, we are led to the opposite, unless we be very careful.
If I had not been so great an invalid, I should not have done so much as I have accomplished.