After all, damn it, what does being in love mean if you can't trust a person.
Evelyn WaughRead
It is a curious thing... that every creed promises a paradise which will be absolutely uninhabitable for anyone of civilized taste.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote critiques the idealized visions of paradise presented by various beliefs, suggesting they are often impractical for refined individuals.
Evelyn Waugh's quote reflects on the ironic nature of religious or ideological promises of paradise, highlighting a disconnect between these utopian visions and the reality of human desires and cultural sophistication. He suggests that what is often presented as an ideal state is, in fact, not livable for those with civilized sensibilities, provoking thought about the validity of such promises in the context of human experience.
Themes
ParadiseCivilizedCreedTasteIrony
In practice
Example use cases
Using this quote during a debate on the merits of different belief systems in a philosophy class.
More from Evelyn Waugh
All quotes →There are no poetic ideas; only poetic utterances.
Evelyn WaughRead
Punctuality is the virtue of the bored.
Evelyn WaughRead
...she had regained what I thought she had lost forever, the magical sadness which had drawn me to her, the thwarted look that had seemed to say, "Surely I was made for some other purpose than this?
Evelyn WaughRead
That was the change in her from ten years ago; that, indeed, was her reward, this haunting, magical sadness which spoke straight to the heart and struck silence; it was the completion of her beauty.
Evelyn WaughRead
That's the public-school system all over. They may kick you out, but they never let you down.
Evelyn WaughRead
Similar quotes
It is inconceivable that the God who gives Himself in His Son to save us, should have created some people ordained to evil and damnation. There can only be one predestination to salvation. In and through Jesus Christ all people are predestined to be saved. Our free choice is ruled out in this regard. God wants free people, except in relation to this last and definitive decision. We are not free to decide and choose to be damned.
Jacques EllulRead
Solitude is a necessary protest to the incursions and the false alarms of society's hysteria, a period of cure and recovery.
Abraham Joshua HeschelRead
Ye have cast out yer brothers for devils and now complain ye, lamenting, that ye've been left to fight alone.
Robert Anton WilsonRead
Darkness always had its part to play. Without it, how would we know when we walked in the light? It’s only when its ambitions become too grandiose that it must be opposed, disciplined, sometimes—if necessary—brought down for a time. Then it will rise again, as it must.
Clive BarkerRead
Pleasure, so called, is the murderer of serious thought. This is the age of excessive amusement. Everybody craves for it, like a babe for its rattle!
Charles SpurgeonRead
It's a fool boy who mocks a giant, and a mad world when a cripple has to defend him.
George R. R. MartinRead