Momo listened to everyone and everything - even to the rain and the wind and the pine trees - and all of them spoke to her after their own fashion.
Michael EndeRead
When it comes to controlling human beings there is no better instrument than lies. Because, you see, humans live by beliefs. And beliefs can be manipulated. The power to manipulate beliefs is the only thing that counts ... Who knows what use they’ll make of you? Maybe you’ll help them to persuade people to buy things they don’t need, or hate things they know nothing about, or hold beliefs that make them easy to handle, or doubt the truths that might save them.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the power of lies in influencing human beliefs and behaviors, suggesting that manipulation of beliefs can lead to control over individuals.
Michael Ende's quote reveals the insidious nature of lies as tools for controlling people. It underscores the idea that beliefs, often taken for granted, can be easily shaped and altered through deception, leading individuals to act against their own interests or authentic truths. The quote suggests that the manipulation of beliefs is a significant power that can lead to various harmful outcomes, including consumerism and prejudice, ultimately questioning the ethical implications of one's influence over others.
Themes
LiesHuman BehaviorBeliefsManipulationControl
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a presentation about media literacy to emphasize the importance of questioning sources.
More from Michael Ende
All quotes →If you have never wept bitter tears because a wonderful story has come to an end and you must take your leave of the characters with whom you have shared so many adventures, whom you have loved and admired, for whom you have hoped and feared, and without whose company life seems empty and meaningless. If such things have not been part of your own experience, you probably won't understand what Bastian did next.
Michael EndeRead
Once someone dreams a dream, it can't just drop out of existence. But if the dreamer can't remember it, what becomes of it? It lives on in Fantastica, deep under earth. There are forgotten dreams stored in many layers. The deeper one digs, the closer they are. All Fantastica rests on a foundation of forgotten dreams.
Michael EndeRead
Calendars and clocks exist to measure time, but that signifies little because we all know that an hour can seem as eternity or pass in a flash, according to how we spend it.
Michael EndeRead
Life holds one great but quite commonplace mystery. Though shared by each of us and known to all, seldom rates a second thought. That mystery, which most of us take for granted and never think twice about, is time. Calendars and clocks exist to measure time, but that signifies little because we all know that an hour can seem as eternity or pass in a flash, according to how we spend it. Time is life itself, and life resides in the human heart.
Michael EndeRead
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