They don't ask much of you. They only want you to hate the things you love and to love the things you despise.
Boris PasternakRead
In every generation there has to be some fool who will speak the truth as he sees it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Truth can often be uncomfortable, and it takes courage to voice it. Every generation needs someone to challenge the status quo.
This quote by Boris Pasternak highlights the essential role of truth-tellers in society, suggesting that each generation inevitably produces individuals who are willing to speak out against falsehoods, regardless of the personal cost. It emphasizes that speaking the truth is a courageous act, often met with resistance and misunderstanding, yet it is necessary for progress and enlightenment.
Themes
TruthCourageSocietyWisdomSpeak Up
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech on honesty in leadership, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of truthfulness.
More from Boris Pasternak
All quotes →Even so, one step from my grave, I believe that cruelty, spite, The powers of darkness will in time, Be crushed by the spirit of light.
Boris PasternakRead
He is her glory. Any woman could say it. For every one of them, God is in her child. Mothers of great men must have been familiar with this feeling, but then, all women are mothers of great men -- it isn't their fault if life disappoints them later.
Boris PasternakRead
Our evenings are farewells. Our parties are testaments. So that the secret stream of suffering. May warm the cold of life.
Boris PasternakRead
The most extraordinary discoveries are made when the artist is overwhelmed by what he has to say.
Boris PasternakRead
Oh, how one wishes sometimes to escape from the meaningless dullness of human eloquence, from all those sublime phrases, to take refuge in nature, apparently so inarticulate, or in the wordlessness of long, grinding labor, of sound sleep, of true music, or of a human understanding rendered speechless by emotion!
Boris PasternakRead
Similar quotes
Think deeply about things. Don’t just go along because that’s the way things are or that’s what your friends say. Consider the effects, consider the alternatives, but most importantly, just think.
Aaron SwartzRead
Great thoughts speak only to the thoughtful mind, but great actions speak to all mankind.
Theodore RooseveltRead
Writing is my way of diving deep into an issue. My approach is to watch, read and listen - sometimes for years - in order to grasp the dynamics, resistance and patterns of thought that repeat and impede progress and breakthrough.
Paul HawkenRead
I still occasionally need to struggle but I now fear it less. The weapons I fight it with are also my consolations: books, music, food, wine, nature.
P. D. JamesRead
Let not a man do what his sense of right bids him not to do, nor desire what it forbids him to desire. This is sufficient. The skillful artist will not alter his measures for the sake of a stupid workman.
MenciusRead
It means nothing to be open to a proposition we don't understand.
Carl SaganRead