Life is to be lived, not controlled, and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat.
Ralph EllisonRead
Hibernation is a covert preparation for a more overt action.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Hibernation symbolizes a period of rest and planning that precedes action.
Ralph Ellison suggests that moments of retreat and reflection, much like hibernation in nature, are essential for preparing oneself for future endeavors. This period of quiet introspection allows for growth and strengthens one’s resolve, ensuring that when the time comes for action, it is thorough and decisive.
Themes
HibernationPreparationActionReflectionGrowth
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about achieving goals after setbacks.
More from Ralph Ellison
All quotes →I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.
Ralph EllisonRead
I denounce because though implicated and partially responsible, I have been hurt to the point of abysmal pain, hurt to the point of invisibility. And I defend because in spite of it all, I find that I love.
Ralph EllisonRead
The blues is an art of ambiguity, an assertion of the irrepressibly human over all circumstance whether created by others or by one's own human failings. They are the only consistent art in the United States which constantly remind us of our limitations while encouraging us to see how far we can actually go. When understood in their more profound implication, they are a corrective, an attempt to draw a line upon man's own limitless assertion.
Ralph EllisonRead
If you can show me how I can cling to that which is real to me, while teaching me a way into the larger society, then and only then will I drop my defenses and hostility, and I will sing your praises and help you to make the desert bear fruit.
Ralph EllisonRead
All novels are about certain minorities: the individual is a minority. The universal in the novel-and isn't that what we're all clamoring for these days?-is reached only through the depiction of the specific man in a specific circumstance.
Ralph EllisonRead
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People of this world are deluded. They're always longing for something - always, in a word, seeking.
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If the mind, that rules the body, ever so far forgets itself as to trample on its slave, the slave is never generous enough to forgive the injury, but will rise and smite the oppressor.
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Dreams are where we visit the many lands and landscapes of human possibility and discover the one where we feel at home. The great religious leaders were all dreamers.
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I woke up one day and thought: 'I want to write a book about the history of my body.' I could justify talking about my mother because it was in her body that my body began.
Paul AusterRead
I want to do a certain thing in the world, and I am going to do it with unwavering concentration. I am concerning myself with only one essential thing: to set man free. I desire to free him from all cages, from all fears, and not to found religions, new sects, nor to establish new theories and new philosophies.
Jiddu KrishnamurtiRead