Gradually I came to realize that people will more readily swallow lies than truth, as if the taste of lies was homey, appetizing: a habit.
Martha GellhornRead
I do not see myself as a footnote to someone else's life.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of self-identity and agency in one's own life rather than being overshadowed by others.
Martha Gellhorn's quote reflects a strong assertion of individuality and the desire to live a life that is not defined by others. It conveys the idea that one should strive to be the protagonist of their own story, rather than merely playing a secondary role in someone else's narrative. This perspective is essential for personal fulfillment and encourages people to carve out their unique paths in life.
In practice
During a motivational speech about self-discovery, one might reference this quote to inspire people to embrace their unique paths.
Gradually I came to realize that people will more readily swallow lies than truth, as if the taste of lies was homey, appetizing: a habit.
It would be a bitter cosmic joke if we destroy ourselves due to atrophy of the imagination.
the ends never justify the means because IT never ends.
Citizenship is a tough occupation which obliges the citizen to make his own informed opinion and stand by it.
I followed the war wherever I could reach it.
Thousand got away to other countries; thousands returned to Spain tempted by false promises of kindness. By the tens of thousands, these Spaniards died of neglect in the concentration camps.
Hey, look at this!" He holds up a glistening, perfect pearl about the size of a pea. "You know, if you put enough pressure on coal it turns to pearls," he says earnestly to Finnick. "No, it doesn't," says Finnick dismissively. But I crack up, remembering that's how a clueless Effie Trinket presented us to the people of the Capitol last year, before anyone knew us. As coal pressured into pearls by our weighty existence. Beauty that arose out of pain.
I am grown by sympathy a little eager and sentimental, but leave me alone, and I should relish every hour and what it brought me, the pot-luck of the day, as heartily as the oldest gossip in the bar-room.
Oh, London is a man's town, there's power in the air; And Paris is a woman's town, with flowers in her hair; And it's sweet to dream in Venice, and it's great to study Rome; But when it comes to living, there is no place like home.
My heart is drumming in my chest so hard it aches, but it's the good kind of ache, like the feeling you get on the first real day of autumn, when the air is crisp and the leaves are all flaring at the edges and the wind smells just vaguely of smoke - like the end and the beginning of something all at once.
What a good thing, for instance, it was that one princess should sleep for a hundred years! Was she not saved from all the plague of young men who were not worthy of her? And did not she come awake exactly at the right moment when the right prince kissed her? For my part, I cannot help wishing a good many girls would sleep till just the same fate overtook them. It would be happier for them, and more agreeable to their friends.
We try, we fail, we posture, we aspire, we pontificate - and then we age, shrink, die, and vanish.
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