As the clockwork of the millennia moved a notch in front of their eyes, it had taken their thoughts from small things and reminded them of how vulnerable they were to time.
Mark HelprinRead
The horse could not do without Manhattan. It drew him like a magnet, like a vacuum, like oats, or a mare, or an open, never-ending, tree-lined road.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote expresses an intense connection between a horse and its natural environment, highlighting the allure of freedom and adventure.
In this quote, Mark Helprin illustrates the profound relationship between a horse and the city of Manhattan, depicting it as an essential force that irresistibly draws the horse towards it. The imagery of the horse being attracted to Manhattan is likened to fundamental needs and desires such as food, companionship, and the excitement of exploration, suggesting that the pull of the city is as natural and vital as these instincts.
Themes
HorseManhattanMagnetNatureAdventure
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used during a speech about the bond between creatures and their environments.
More from Mark Helprin
All quotes βThey're not just dreams. Not anymore, I dream more than I wake now, and, at times, I have crossed over. Can't you see? I've been there.
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their powerlessness, innocence, and imagination fused to enable them to turn time inside out, travel on the wind, and enter the souls of animals.
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Youβll join me sooner than you know in a place with . . . no illusions, where the truth is the only architecture, the only color, the only sound--where that which we sense merely on occasion, and which takes us up and gives us the rare and beautiful glimpses of the things we truly love, flows in deep rivers and tumbles about like clouds in the sky.
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Perhaps things are most beautiful when they are not quite real; when you look upon a scene as an outsider, and come to possess it in its entirety and forever; when you live in the present with the lucidity and feeling of memory; when, for want of connection, the world deepens and becomes art.
Mark HelprinRead
He moved like a dancer, which is not surprising; a horse is a beautiful animal, but it is perhaps most remarkable because it moves as if it always hears music.
Mark HelprinRead
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