We have a disharmony in our natures. We cannot live together without injuring each other.
Interpretation
This quote reflects the inherent conflict in human nature and the inevitability of harm in relationships.
William Golding's quote highlights the fundamental discord that exists within human beings, suggesting that our coexistence is marked by the tendency to cause injury to one another. It speaks to the darker aspects of human relationships, emphasizing that even in our attempts to live together peacefully, there is an underlying conflict that results in harm. This disharmony suggests that true unity may be an elusive goal due to our intrinsic nature.
In practice
In a discussion about human relationships, this quote can emphasize the struggles we face in maintaining harmony.
Consider a man riding a bicycle. Whoever he is, we can say three things about him. We know he got on the bicycle and started to move. We know that at some point he will stop and get off. Most important of all, we know that if at any point between the beginning and the end of his journey he stops moving and does not get off the bicycle he will fall off it. That is a metaphor for the journey through life of any living thing, and I think of any society of living things.
The skull regarded Ralph like one who knows all the answers and won't tell.
Maybe, he said hesitantly, maybe there is a beast. The assembly cried out savagely and Ralph stood up in amazement. You, Simon? You believe in this? I don't know, said Simon. His heartbeats were choking him. [...] Ralph shouted. Hear him! He's got the conch! What I mean is . . . maybe it's only us. Nuts! That was from Piggy, shocked out of decorum.
The mask was a thing on it's own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-conciousness.
Man produces evil as a bee produces honey.
Utopias are presented for our inspection as a critique of the human state.
Just as modern mass production requires the standardization of commodities, so the social process requires standardization of man, and this standardization is called equality.
There was me, that is Alex, and my three droogs, that is Pete, Georgie and Dim, Dim being really dim, and we sat in the Korova Milkbar making up our rassoodocks what to do with the evening.
The essence of America lies not in the headlined heroes...but in the everyday folks who live and die unknown, yet leave their dreams as legacies
In a sense, a cyborg has no origin story in the Western sense β a βfinalβ irony since the cyborg is also the awful apocalyptic telos of the βWestβsβ escalating dominations of abstract individuation, an ultimate self untied at last from all dependency, a man in space.
The grand delusion of contemporary liberals is that they have both the right and the ability to move their fellow creatures around like blocks of wood - and that the end results will be no different than if people had voluntarily chosen the same action
It is an axiom in my mind that our liberty can never be safe but in the hands of the people themselves, and that too of the people with a certain degree of instruction. This it is the business of the state to effect, and on a general plan.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.