Crude thoughts and fierce forces are my state. I do not know who I am. Nor what I was. I cannot hear a sound. Pain is near that will be like no pain felt before.
Norman MailerRead
As Kierkegaard was the first to suggest, we can never know where our prayers are likely to go nor from whom the answers will come. When we think we are nearest to God, we could be assisting the Devil.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that our understanding of faith and divine intervention is complex and uncertain.
Norman Mailer's quote reflects on the unpredictable nature of prayer and the spiritual realm. It suggests that while we may feel close to divine guidance, we could also inadvertently be aligned with negative influences. This challenges the assumption that our intentions and spiritual pursuits are straightforward and underscores the complexities of faith, morality, and the human experience.
In practice
This quote can be used in a philosophical discussion about the nature of good and evil.
Crude thoughts and fierce forces are my state. I do not know who I am. Nor what I was. I cannot hear a sound. Pain is near that will be like no pain felt before.
I no longer gave a sick dog's drop for the wisdom, the reliability and the authority of the public's literary mind, those creeps and old ladies of vested reviewing.
There's nothing glorious about being a professional. . . . Professionalism probably comes down to being able to work on a bad day.
The natural role of twentieth-century man is anxiety.
Over-certified adjectives are the mark of most best-seller writing
At bottom, I mean profoundly at bottom, the FBI has nothing to do with Communism, it has nothing to do with catching criminals, it has nothing to do with the Mafia, the syndicate, it has nothing to do with trust-busting, it has nothing to do with interstate commerce, it has nothing to do with anything but serving as a church for the mediocre. A high church for the true mediocre.
To be content with death may be better than to desire it.
despite all our desperate, eternal attempts to separate, contain and mend, categories always leak.
Only the children know what they are looking for. They waste their time over a rag doll and it becomes very important to them; and if anybody takes it away from them, they cry.
We have all, at one time or another, been performers, and many of us still are - politicians, playboys, cardinals and kings.
It is safe to tell the pure in heart that they shall see God, for only the pure in heart want to.
British society has never been cleansed of the filth of imperialism.
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