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.
Let the moment go. . . . Don't forget it for a moment, though. Just remembering you've had an "and" when you're back to "or" makes the "or" mean more than it did before. . . . Now I understand! And it's time to leave the woods.
And I will die, and you will die, and we all will die, and even the stars will fade out one after another in time.
I feel like I could be likened to an old hound circling on a rug for the last five years.
You, yesterday, did the usual things, just as any day, You don't know if it's worth remembering. You would prefer to remember, there lying in the half-darkness of the bedroom, not what has happened already but what is going to happen. In your half-darkness your eyes would prefer to look ahead, not behind, and they do not know how to foresee the past.
When the belly is empty, the body becomes spirit; and when it is full, the spirit becomes body.
All of the true things I am about to tell you are shameless lies.
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