Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.
John SteinbeckRead
The discipline of the written word punishes both stupidity and dishonesty.
Interpretation
Writing reveals the truth and exposes ignorance and deceit.
This quote by John Steinbeck emphasizes the power of the written word as a tool for accountability. It suggests that writing serves as a discipline that holds individuals responsible for their thoughts and actions, making it difficult for ignorance and dishonesty to thrive, as both are often unveiled through the clarity and precision that writing demands.
In practice
During a writing workshop, to encourage honesty among participants.
Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.
At one point, as Samuel urges Adam to raise his boys well regardless of the blood that might be in them, Adam tells him, "You can't make a race horse of a pig." Samuel replies, "No, but you can make a very fast pig.
And when that crop grew, and was harvested, no man had crumbled a hot clod in his fingers and let the earth sift past his fingertips. No man had touched the seed, or lusted for the growth. Men ate what they had not raised, had no connection with the bread. The land bore under iron, and under iron gradually died; for it was not loved or hated, it had no prayers or curses.
The comfortable people in tight houses felt pity at first, and then distaste, and finally hatred for the migrant people.
People do not want advice - they want corroboration.
It is one of the triumphs of the human that he can know a thing and still not believe it.
Speak the truth._x000D_ _x000D_ Give whatever you can._x000D_ _x000D_ Never be angry._x000D_ _x000D_ These three steps will lead you_x000D_ _x000D_ Into the presence of the gods.
I'm a person that carries everything that happened to me in my past, with me into the future. I refuse to let it make me bitter. I still completely believe in love and I remain open to anything that will happen to me.
The historian's first duties are sacrilege and the mocking of false gods. They are his indispensable instruments for establishing the truth.
The way to cover our sin is to uncover it by confession.
The greatest action is not conforming with the worlds ways.
Jealousy is comparison. And we have been taught to compare, we have been conditioned to compare, always compare. Somebody else has a better house, somebody else has a more beautiful body, somebody else has more money, somebody else has a more charismatic personality. Compare, go on comparing yourself with everybody else you pass by, and great jealousy will be the outcome; it is the by-product of the conditioning for comparison.
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