Crude thoughts and fierce forces are my state. I do not know who I am. Nor what I was. I cannot hear a sound. Pain is near that will be like no pain felt before.
Norman MailerRead
There is no greater impotence in all the world like knowing you are right and that the wave of the world is wrong, yet the wave crashes upon you.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects the frustration of knowing one's truth in the face of widespread opposition or ignorance.
Norman Mailer's quote encapsulates the profound sense of futility one can feel when they are certain of their beliefs or values, yet are overwhelmed by the opposing views of the majority. It highlights a struggle against societal norms or common beliefs that contradict personal conviction, evoking feelings of isolation and impotence when faced with relentless opposition, like crashing waves that cannot be avoided.
Themes
TruthBeliefOppositionFutilityConviction
In practice
Example use cases
During a debate about climate change, I felt this quote resonated with my belief in science despite popular denial.
More from Norman Mailer
All quotes βI no longer gave a sick dog's drop for the wisdom, the reliability and the authority of the public's literary mind, those creeps and old ladies of vested reviewing.
Norman MailerRead
There's nothing glorious about being a professional. . . . Professionalism probably comes down to being able to work on a bad day.
Norman MailerRead
The natural role of twentieth-century man is anxiety.
Norman MailerRead
Over-certified adjectives are the mark of most best-seller writing
Norman MailerRead
At bottom, I mean profoundly at bottom, the FBI has nothing to do with Communism, it has nothing to do with catching criminals, it has nothing to do with the Mafia, the syndicate, it has nothing to do with trust-busting, it has nothing to do with interstate commerce, it has nothing to do with anything but serving as a church for the mediocre. A high church for the true mediocre.
Norman MailerRead
Similar quotes
Perhaps fate isn't blind after all. Perhaps it's capable of fantasy, even compassion.
Elie WieselRead
It is not what the man of science believes that distinguishes him, but how and why he believes it. His beliefs are tentative, not dogmatic; they are based on evidence, not on authority or intuition.
Bertrand RussellRead
Nothing that comes from the deep, passional soul is bad, or can be bad.
D. H. LawrenceRead
In this way, his unhappy soul struggled with its anguish. Eighteen hundred years before this unfortunate man, the mysterious Being, in whom all the sanctities and all the sufferings of humanity come together, He too, while the olive trees trembled in the fierce breath of the Infinite, had brushed away the fearful cup that appeared before him, streaming with shadow and running over with darkness, in the star-filled depths. (pg. 236)
Victor HugoRead
The effect of one good-hearted person is incalculable.
Oscar AriasRead
The diseased, anyway, are more interesting than the healthy. The words of the diseased, even those who can manage only a murmur, carry more weight than those of the healthy. Then, too, all healthy people will in the future know disease. That sense of time, ah, the diseased manβs sense of time, what treasure hidden in a desert cave. Then, too the diseased truly bite, whereas the healthy pretend to bite but really only snap at the air. Then, too, then, too, then, too.
Roberto BolanoRead