Anyone with gumption and a sharp mind will take the measure of two things: what's said and what's done.
Seamus HeaneyRead
Hope for a great sea-change timid to rebuke and too petty to forgive.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the struggle between hope for transformation and the reluctance to confront challenges or hold grudges.
Seamus Heaney captures the tension between the desire for significant change in life and the human tendency to avoid confrontation or harbor resentment. The phrase reflects a yearning for profound transformation while acknowledging that fear and pettiness can hold us back from taking the necessary steps to achieve such change.
Themes
HopeChangeForgivenessTransformationRebuke
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about overcoming obstacles, one might use this quote to illustrate the need for hope in the face of adversity.
More from Seamus Heaney
All quotes βWhat I've said before, only half in joke, is that everybody in Ireland is famous. Or, maybe better, say everybody is familiar.
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The kinds of truth that art gives us many, many times are small truths. They don't have the resonance of an encyclical from the Pope stating an eternal truth, but they partake of the quality of eternity. There is a sort of timeless delight in them.
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If self is a location, so is love: Bearings taken, markings, cardinal points, Options, obstinacies, dug heels, and distance, Here and there and now and then, a stance.
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In my early teens, I acquired a kind of representative status: went on behalf of the family to wakes and funerals and so on. And I would be counted on as an adult contributor when it came to farm work - the hay in the summertime, for example.
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I think that water is immediately interesting. It's just, as an element, it is full of life. It is associated with origin; it is bright - it reflects you.
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