Anyone with gumption and a sharp mind will take the measure of two things: what's said and what's done.
Seamus HeaneyRead
The external reality and inner dynamic of happenings in Northern Ireland between 1968 and 1974 were symptomatic of change, violent change admittedly, but change nevertheless, and for the minority living there, change had been long overdue.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the tumultuous changes in Northern Ireland during a crucial period, emphasizing the necessity of change for the marginalized community.
Seamus Heaney's quote reflects on the significant transformations that occurred in Northern Ireland from 1968 to 1974, a time marked by violence but also a crucial period of change. He indicates that while change can often be unsettling and tumultuous, it was vital for the minority in Northern Ireland, who felt that their need for transformation had been long overdue. Heaney's perspective suggests that even in adversity, the drive towards change is essential for progress.
Themes
ChangeViolenceNorthern IrelandHistoryTransformation
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a discussion about the history of conflict and resolution in Northern Ireland.
More from Seamus Heaney
All quotes →What I've said before, only half in joke, is that everybody in Ireland is famous. Or, maybe better, say everybody is familiar.
Seamus HeaneyRead
The kinds of truth that art gives us many, many times are small truths. They don't have the resonance of an encyclical from the Pope stating an eternal truth, but they partake of the quality of eternity. There is a sort of timeless delight in them.
Seamus HeaneyRead
If self is a location, so is love: Bearings taken, markings, cardinal points, Options, obstinacies, dug heels, and distance, Here and there and now and then, a stance.
Seamus HeaneyRead
In my early teens, I acquired a kind of representative status: went on behalf of the family to wakes and funerals and so on. And I would be counted on as an adult contributor when it came to farm work - the hay in the summertime, for example.
Seamus HeaneyRead
I think that water is immediately interesting. It's just, as an element, it is full of life. It is associated with origin; it is bright - it reflects you.
Seamus HeaneyRead
Similar quotes
Those who can't imagine change reveal the deficits of their imaginations, not the difficulty of change.
Nelson MandelaRead
You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight.
Jim RohnRead
People are very hungry for something new. I think they are interested in being called to be a part of something larger than the sort of small, petty, slash-and-burn politics that we have been seeing over the last several years.
Barack ObamaRead
The only way to get change is not through the courts or - heaven forbid - the politicians, but through a change of human consciousness and through a change of heart. Only through the arts - music, poetry, dance, painting, writing - "can we really reach each other.
Leslie Marmon SilkoRead
There is - and always will be - the legacy of chattel slavery in this nation, an obsession with racial and gender differences, but I think that, at its best, this nation is capable of creating standards for itself and reaching towards those standards.
Kehinde WileyRead
No reform is possible unless some of the educated and the rich voluntarily accept the status of the poor, travel third, refuse to enjoy the amenities denied to the poor and, instead of taking avoidable hardships, discourtesies and injustice as a matter of course, fight for their removal.
Mahatma GandhiRead