Gradually I came to realize that people will more readily swallow lies than truth, as if the taste of lies was homey, appetizing: a habit.
Martha GellhornRead
Citizenship is a tough occupation which obliges the citizen to make his own informed opinion and stand by it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Citizenship requires active engagement and responsibility in forming and sharing personal opinions.
This quote emphasizes the responsibility of individuals in a democracy to not only have their own informed opinions but also to stand firm in them. It suggests that being a citizen is not a passive role; rather, it involves critical thinking and commitment to one's beliefs, which are essential in influencing society and governance.
Themes
CitizenshipResponsibilityOpinionDemocracyEngagement
In practice
Example use cases
During a citizenship class, I quoted, 'Citizenship is a tough occupation...' to highlight the importance of informed opinions.
More from Martha Gellhorn
All quotes →It would be a bitter cosmic joke if we destroy ourselves due to atrophy of the imagination.
Martha GellhornRead
the ends never justify the means because IT never ends.
Martha GellhornRead
I followed the war wherever I could reach it.
Martha GellhornRead
Thousand got away to other countries; thousands returned to Spain tempted by false promises of kindness. By the tens of thousands, these Spaniards died of neglect in the concentration camps.
Martha GellhornRead
By its existence, the Peace Movement denies that governments know best; it stands for a different order of priorities: the human race comes first.
Martha GellhornRead
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On Sunday 8 April 1945, he had just finished conducting a service of worship at Schoenberg, when two soldiers came took him away. As he left, he said to another prisoner, This is the end - but for me, the beginning - of life. He was hanged the next day, less than a week before the Allies reached the camp.
Dietrich BonhoefferRead
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Margo JeffersonRead
It was childish to feel disappointed, but childishness comes almost as naturally to a man as to a child.
Isaac AsimovRead
It [a new world order] needs only that the governments of Britain, the United States, France, Germany, and Russia should get together in order to set up an effective control of currency, credit, production, and distribution – that is to say, an effective ‘dictatorship of prosperity,’ for the whole world. The other sixty odd States would have to join in or accommodate themselves to the over-ruling decisions of these major Powers.
H. G. WellsRead
Goodness is to do good to the deserving and love the good and hate the wicked, and not to be eager to inflict punishment or take vengeance, but to be gracious and kindly and forgiving.
AristotleRead
It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury; signifying nothing.
William ShakespeareRead