I'd rather have two good friends, than 500,000 admirers.
E. E. CummingsRead
To like an individual because he's black is just as insulting as to dislike him because he isn't white.
Interpretation
Valuing a person solely based on race is a form of prejudice, regardless of whether it is positive or negative.
E. E. Cummings highlights the absurdity of racism by asserting that both liking or disliking someone based on their race is equally disrespectful. He emphasizes the idea that one's character and worth should not be judged based on racial identity but rather on individual merit and humanity, advocating for a more profound understanding and appreciation of people beyond superficial attributes.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of equality in society.
I'd rather have two good friends, than 500,000 admirers.
I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing than to teach ten thousand stars how not to dance.
It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.
When god decided to invent everything he took one reath bigger than a circustent and everything began
The Artist is no other than he who unlearns what he has learned, in order to know himself.
Nobody else can be alive for you; nor can you be alive for anybody else.
My goal is to try to get people into a state of generalized agnosticism, not agnosticism about God alone, but agnosticism about everything.
Behind my carefully buttoned collar is my nakedness, the struggle to find clean clothes, food, meaning, and money. Behind sex is rage, behind anger is love, behind this moment is silence, years of silence.
Where else could one find such a perfect combination of American values -- racism, militarism, capitalism -- all packaged in one 'ideal' symbol, a woman.
Obviously I have a capacity for feeling extreme anxiety, and there are people out there who don't. I'm to some extent rather jealous of them.
So be my passing! My task accomplished and the long day done, My wages taken, and in my heart Some late lark singing, Let me be gathered in the quiet west, The sundown splendid and serene, Death.
We three belong to the Middle Ages. We have this need of heroism, and there is no place for such feelings in modern life. That is our tragedy. Once I wanted to be a saint. It seemed the only absolute act left to do, for what is most powerful in me is the craving for purity, greatness.
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