QuoteProject
There is a greater darkness than the one we fight. It is the darkness of the soul that has lost its way. The war we fight is not against powers and principalities, it is against chaos and despair. Greater than the death of flesh is the death of hope, the death of dreams. Against this peril we can never surrender.
J. Michael Straczynski
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote emphasizes the inner struggles of the human spirit and the importance of hope and dreams in the face of despair.

In this quote, J. Michael Straczynski speaks to the profound battles we often face within ourselves, highlighting that the true darkness lies not only in external conflicts but also within our souls when we succumb to hopelessness and despair. He underscores the critical importance of maintaining hope and dreams, suggesting that these inner battles are far more significant than any physical confrontation, and encourages us to never surrender to such despair.

Themes

DarknessSoulHopeDespairDreamsInner Conflict

In practice

Example use cases

In a motivational speech about resilience, one could use this quote to inspire others to fight through their internal struggles.

More from J. Michael Straczynski

Avoid the tyranny of the reasonable voice...it will guarantee a complacency of never trying anything adventurous.
J. Michael StraczynskiRead
You know, I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought, wouldn't it be much worse if life were fair, and all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them? So, now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe.
J. Michael StraczynskiRead
The point of mythology or myth is to point to the horizon and to point back to ourselves: This is who we are; this is where we came from; and this is where we're going. And a lot of Western society over the last hundred years - the last 50 years really - has lost that. We have become rather aimless and wandering.
J. Michael StraczynskiRead
The past tempts us, the present confuses us, and the future frightens us. And our lives slip away, moment by moment, lost in that vast terrible in-between. But there is still time to seize that one last fragile moment.
J. Michael StraczynskiRead
When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree by the river of truth, and tell the whole world - No, you move.
J. Michael StraczynskiRead
When it comes down to it, the reason that science fiction endures is that it is, at its core, an optimistic genre. What it says at the end of the day is that there is a tomorrow, we do go on, we don't extinguish ourselves and leave the planet to the cockroaches.
J. Michael StraczynskiRead

Similar quotes

I think it's relatively easy for people to accept something like telepathy or precognition or teleplasm because their willingness to believe doesn't cost them anything. It doesn't keep them awake nights. But the idea that the evil that men do lives after them is unsettling.
Stephen KingRead
For some reason, we're brainwashed to think if you're not a thug or an idiot, you're not black enough. If you go to school, make good grades, speak intelligent, and don't break the law, you're not a good black person.
Charles BarkleyRead
For the world is an ever-elusive and ever-disappointing mirage only from the standpoint of someone standing aside from it—as if it were quite other than himself—and then trying to grasp it. But a third response is possible. Not withdrawal, not stewardship on the hypothesis of a future reward, but the fullest collaboration with the world as a harmonious system of contained conflicts—based on the realization that the only real "I" is the whole endless process.
Alan WattsRead
What a miserable thing life is: you're in clover; only the clover isn't good enough.
Bertolt BrechtRead
Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.
Martin Luther King, Jr.Read
In a liquid modern life there are no permanent bonds, and any that we take up for a time must be tied loosely so that they can be untied again, as quickly and as effortlessly as possible, when circumstances change - as they surely will in our liquid modern society, over and over again.
Zygmunt BaumanRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.