In novels, and American novels in particular, it's not just about redemption, it's about forward movement and healing oneself. Americans are very big on getting better.
Hanya YanagiharaRead
It's a funny thing about cities: Some have brief, bright moments of cultural and political dominance, decades- or centuries-long spells when they seem the center of their particular nation, or region, or empire... only to later fall into obscurity and disrepair, never to regain their former glory.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Cities experience fleeting periods of prominence before fading into obscurity.
Hanya Yanagihara's quote reflects on the transient nature of cities and their cultural significance. It suggests that even great centers of power and influence can lose their prominence over time, becoming mere shadows of their former glory, which serves as a reminder of the impermanence of achievement and recognition in human history.
Themes
CitiesCultural DominanceObscurityImpermanenceHistory
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about urban development, one might say, 'It's a funny thing about cities, as Yanagihara notes, they can rise and fall in prominence.'
More from Hanya Yanagihara
All quotes →Similar quotes
At the cross in holy love God through Christ paid the full penalty of our disobedience himself. He bore the judgment we deserve in order to bring us the forgiveness we do not deserve. On the cross divine mercy and justice were equally expressed and eternally reconciled. God's holy love was 'satisfied.'
John StottRead
For what are myths if not the imposing of order on phenomena that do not possess order in themselves? And all myths, however they differ from philosophical systems and scientific theories, share this with them, that they negate the principle of randomness in the world.
Stanislaw LemRead
The kingdom of heaven is within us. The Jewish idea was a kingdom of heaven upon this earth. That was not the idea of Jesus.
Swami VivekanandaRead
Capitalism is an art form, an Apollonian fabrication to rival nature. It is hypocritical for feminists and intellectuals to enjoy the pleasures and conveniences of capitalism while sneering at it. Everyone born into capitalism has incurred a debt to it. Give Caesar his due.
Camille PagliaRead
As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness.
Henry David ThoreauRead
Unselfishness is God. One may live on a throne, in a golden palace, and be perfectly unselfish; and then he is in God. Another may live in a hut and wear rags, and have nothing in the world; yet, if he is selfish, he is intensely merged in the world.
Swami VivekanandaRead