God, how pointless and empty the world is! Days filled with cheap and tarnished moments succeed each other, restless and haunted nights follow in bitter routine: the sun shines without brightness, and the moon rises without light. My heart has the taste of ashes, and my throat is tight and weary with weeping. What is a lost soul? It is one that has turned from its true path and is groping in the darkness of remembered ways—
Interpretation
This quote reflects a profound sense of despair and disillusionment with life.
Malcolm Lowry expresses a deep existential crisis, portraying the world as a bleak and empty place devoid of joy and meaning. Through evocative imagery, he illustrates the struggle of a lost soul, one that has deviated from its true path, leading to feelings of isolation and despair amidst a dull existence. This emphasizes the importance of finding purpose and clarity in life to escape the haunting feelings of emptiness.
In practice
Sharing this quote during a discussion about existentialism at a philosophy club.
The Consul felt a pang. Ah, to have a horse, and gallop away, singing, to someone you loved perhaps, into the heart of all the simplicity and peace in the world; was that not like the opportunity afforded man by life itself? Of course not. Still, just for a moment, it had seemed that it was.
No, my secrets are of the grave and must be kept. And this is how I sometimes think of myself, as a great explorer who has discovered some extraordinary land from which he can never return to give his knowledge to the world: but the name of this land is hell.
'Infidel' is a term of reproach, which Christians and Mohammedans, in their modesty, agree to apply to those who differ from them.
Fear is ubiquitous in human life. It starts in infancy with our primal state of helplessness, where we can see what's going on but we can't move to get it. As we grow older we become a little more able to get what we want but then we're going to die so that gives fear another boost.
No wind serves him who addresses his voyage to no certain port.
Any war or conflict you enter where you are likely to lose more Americans and expend more treasure is something worthy of very detailed debate. There ought to be a lot of skepticism. There ought to be a lot of discussion.
The fictive is an emormous territory it turns out, its boundaries vague, and there is little certainty about where it begins and ends.
Welcome to the human race. Nobody controls his own life, Ender.
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