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.
After the desperate years of their own war, after six years of repression inside Spain and six years of horror in exile, these people remain intact in spirit. They are armed with a transcendent faith; they have never won, and yet they have never accepted defeat.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the resilience and unwavering spirit of individuals facing adversity.
Martha Gellhorn's quote emphasizes the remarkable strength and perseverance of people who have endured tremendous hardship and repression. Despite facing years of conflict and exile, their spirit remains unbroken, showcasing a profound sense of faith and an unwillingness to concede defeat. This resilience in the face of ongoing struggles illustrates the power of hope and determination, suggesting that true victory lies not in the absence of challenges but in the unwavering spirit to confront them.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about overcoming obstacles, one might quote Gellhorn to illustrate the power of enduring spirit.
More from Martha Gellhorn
All quotes βIt would be a bitter cosmic joke if we destroy ourselves due to atrophy of the imagination.
the ends never justify the means because IT never ends.
Citizenship is a tough occupation which obliges the citizen to make his own informed opinion and stand by it.
I followed the war wherever I could reach it.
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.
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It's not the violence of the few that scares me, it's the silence of the many
So it was that the war in the air began. Men rode upon the whirlwind that night and slew and fell like archangels. The sky rained heroes upon the astonished earth. Surely the last fights of mankind were the best. What was the heavy pounding of your Homeric swordsmen, what was the creaking charge of chariots, besides this swift rush, this crash, this giddy triumph, this headlong sweep to death?
Overcome any bitterness that may have come because you were not up to the magnitude of the pain entrusted to you. Like the mother of the world who carries the pain of the world in her heart, you are sharing in a certain measure of that cosmic pain, and are called upon to meet it in joy instead of self pity.
The course that I have uniformly pursued, ever since I became a missionary, has been rather peculiar. In order to become an acceptable and eloquent preacher in a foreign language, I deliberately abjured my own. When I crossed the river, I burnt my ships.
Fire really means a certain kind of burning in the soul that one can no longer tolerate when one is pushed against a wall.