It is, I think, an error to believe that there is any need of religion to make life seem worth living.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that one does not need religion to find meaning in life.
Sinclair Lewis critiques the belief that religion is necessary for a fulfilling life. He argues that life can be meaningful and worth living without adhering to religious doctrines, emphasizing personal autonomy and the value of secular perspectives in shaping oneβs purpose and happiness.
In practice
In a discussion about existentialism and the search for life's meaning, this quote can be used to illustrate a secular viewpoint.
Upon this theology he rarely pondered. The kernel of his practical religion was that it was respectable, and beneficial to one's business, to be seen going to services; that the church kept the Worst Elements from being still worse; and that the pastor's sermons, however dull they might seem at the time of taking, yet had a voodooistic power which 'did a fellow good-- kept him in touch with Higher Things.
Intellectually I know that America is no better than any other country; emotionally I know she is better than every other country.
Writers kid themselves-about themselves and other people. Take the talk about writing methods. Writing is just work-there's no secret. If you dictate or use a pen or type with your toes-it is just work.
She did her work with the thoroughness of a mind which reveres details and never quite understands them.
Writing is just work-there's no secret. If you dictate or use a pen or type or write with your toes-it's still just work.
There are dozens of young poets and fictioneers most of them a little insane in the tradition of James Joyce, who, however insane they may be, have refused to be genteel and traditional and dull.
While I've found many of the religious shows I've viewed over the years not to be to my liking, or in line with my own beliefs, I've never considered it my place to exert any greater type of censorship than changing the channel, or better yet - turning off the TV completely.
She also considered very seriously what she would look like in a little cottage in the middle of the forest, dressed in a melancholy gray and holding communion only with the birds and trees; a life of retirement away from the vain world; a life into which no man came. It had its attractions, but she decided that gray did not suit her.
Time starts out as a notion. But after you turn fifty, time is not a notion anymore but a fact that you start feeling clearly, and in a way, it pushes you to become present in the present.
Be a good ancestor. Stand for something bigger than yourself. Add value to the Earth during your sojourn.
The most fatal seductive lie that has yet existed
Worth seeing, yes; but not worth going to see.
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