Mostly I am sorry for the way I thought of other people. Like a good general, I had treated everyone who wasn't with me as against me.
Lee AtwaterRead
It took a deadly illness to put me eye to eye with that truth, but it is a truth that the country, caught up in its ruthless ambitions and moral decay, can learn on my dime.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The speaker reflects on a difficult experience that revealed profound truths about society's moral challenges.
In this quote, Lee Atwater suggests that personal struggles, particularly those as serious as a deadly illness, can lead to important insights about broader societal issues. He implies that the moral decay and ambitions of the country can be better understood through individual suffering, indicating a relationship between personal hardship and collective awareness.
Themes
TruthIllnessSocietyMoralAmbitions
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about personal growth after adversity.
More from Lee Atwater
All quotes →I acquired more wealth, power, and prestige than most. But you can acquire all you want and still feel empty. What power wouldn't I trade for a little more time with my family? What price wouldn't I pay for an evening with friends? It took a deadly illness to put me eye to eye with that truth, but it is a truth that the country, caught up in its ruthless ambitions and moral decay, can learn on my dime.
Lee AtwaterRead
Similar quotes
It is the hour of pearl—the interval between day and night when time stops and examines itself.
John SteinbeckRead
I never took hallucinogenic drugs because I never wanted my consciousness expanded one unnecessary iota.
Fran LebowitzRead
All I'm saying is that you should show some respect for what other people see with their eyes and feel with their fingers, even though it be the exact opposite.
Luigi PirandelloRead
On some other world, possibly it is different. Better. There are clear good and evil alternatives. Not these obscure admixtures, these blends, with no proper tool by which to untangle the components.
Philip K. DickRead
From eating meat arrogance is born, from arrogance erroneous imaginations issue, and from imagination is born greed; and for this reason refrain from eating meat.
Gautama BuddhaRead
There is not room for Death, Nor atom that his might could render void: Thou - Thou art Being and Breath, And what Thou art may never be destroyed.
Emily BronteRead