It would be a bitter cosmic joke if we destroy ourselves due to atrophy of the imagination.
Martha GellhornRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
People often prefer comforting lies over harsh truths.
This quote encapsulates the tendency of individuals to accept falsehoods because they are more palatable than the sometimes uncomfortable reality of truth. It suggests that lies can become habitual, providing a false sense of comfort, while truth may be more challenging to confront.
Themes
TruthLiesComfortHabitReality
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about honesty in relationships, this quote highlights the importance of facing the truth even when it's difficult.
More from Martha Gellhorn
All quotes βthe ends never justify the means because IT never ends.
Martha GellhornRead
Citizenship is a tough occupation which obliges the citizen to make his own informed opinion and stand by it.
Martha GellhornRead
I followed the war wherever I could reach it.
Martha GellhornRead
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.
Martha GellhornRead
By its existence, the Peace Movement denies that governments know best; it stands for a different order of priorities: the human race comes first.
Martha GellhornRead
Similar quotes
The men who start out with the notion that the world owes them a living generally find that the world pays its 'debt' in the penitentiary or the poor house.
William Graham SumnerRead
A Warrior of Light never resorts to trickery, but he knows how to distract his opponent.
Paulo CoelhoRead
Violence among young people is an aspect of their desire to create. They don't know how to use their energy creatively so they do the opposite and destroy.
Anthony BurgessRead
We must make automatic and habitual, as early as possible, as many useful actions as we can. . . . The more of the details of our daily life we can hand over to the effortless custody of automatism, the more our higher powers of mind will be set free for their own proper work.
William JamesRead
The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.
George OrwellRead
I am a part of everything that I have read.
Theodore RooseveltRead