Even with the utterly lost, to whom life and death are equally jests, there are matters of which no jest can be made.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that even those who take life and death lightly have serious matters that warrant respect.
Edgar Allan Poe's quote reflects on the nature of seriousness in life, highlighting that, despite the humorous or lighthearted attitudes some may adopt towards life's most profound aspects, there are certain matters—often of deep moral or ethical significance—that require reverence and cannot be treated as mere jokes. It underscores a philosophical perspective on life's gravity that transcends the frivolity some may choose to embody.
In practice
In a philosophical discussion about the meaning of life and death, this quote can emphasize the importance of recognizing serious issues.
But evil things, in robes of sorrow, Assailed the monarch's high estate; (Ah, let us mourn, for never morrow Shall dawn upon him desolate!) And round about his home the glory That blushed and bloomed, Is but a dim-remembered story Of the old time entombed.
Most writers - poets in especial - prefer having it understood that they compose by a species of fine frenzy - an ecstatic intuition - and would positively shudder at letting the public take a peep behind the scenes.
...the agony of my soul found vent in one loud, long and final scream of despair.
Where the good and the bad and the worst and the best have gone to their eternal rest.
I could have clasped the red walls to my bosom as a garment of eternal peace. "Death," I said, "any death but that of the pit!" Fool! might I have not known that into the pit it was the object of the burning iron to urge me?
In our endeavors to recall to memory something long forgotten, we often find ourselves upon the very verge of remembrance, without being able, in the end, to remember.
Often a cold shudder has run through me, and I have asked myself whether I may have not devoted myself to a fantasy.
Each moment is defined by a multitude of histories, the past constantly converging upon us, perpetually decaying and reforming itself on the steady pulse of now, now, now, now.
Thou hast created us for Thyself, and our heart is not quiet until it rests in Thee.
A spirit of innovation is generally the result of a selfish temper and confined views. People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors.
The emotions aren't always immediately subject to reason, but they are always immediately subject to action.
Superficial people are those who simply go along without a question in the world-asking nothing, troubled by nothing, examining nothing. Whatever people around them do, they do, too. That's a sad and plastic life-routine and comfortable, maybe, but still sad.
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