Truth is what is true, and it's not necessarily factual. Truth and fact are not the same thing. Truth does not contradict or deny facts, but it goes through and beyond facts. This is something that it is very difficult for some people to understand. Truth can be dangerous.
Like and equal are not the same thing at all. -- Meg Murray
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the distinction between liking someone and treating them as an equal.
In this quote by Madeleine L'Engle, the author highlights the difference between the concepts of liking and equality. While we may have positive feelings towards someone or something, it does not inherently mean we view them as equals. This thought provokes deeper reflection on how relationships and interactions in society can often conflate these two ideas, urging us to recognize that true equality involves respect and acknowledgment of each other's worth beyond mere affection.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about friendships and social dynamics, one might use this quote to illustrate the importance of respect in relationships.
More from Madeleine L'Engle
All quotes βGeorge MacDonald gives me renewed strength during times of trouble--times when I have seen people tempted to deny God--when he says, "The Son of God suffered unto death, not that men might not suffer, but that their sufferings might be like his.
If you don't recount your family history, it will be lost. Honor your own stories and tell them too. The tales may not seem very important, but they are what binds families and makes each of us who we are.
I never want to lose the story-loving child within me, or the adolescent, or the young woman, or the middle-aged one, because all together they help me to be fully alive on this journey, and show me that I must be willing to go where it takes me, even through the valley of the shadow.
The minute we begin to think we have all the answers, we forget the questions.
When we believe in the impossible, it becomes possible, and we can do all kinds of extraordinary things.
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God meant for things to be much easier than we have made them
Our life is two fold Sleep hath its own world, A boundary between the things misnamed Death and existence Sleep hath its own world, And a wide realm of wild reality.
Man lives consciously for himself, but is an unconscious instrument in the attainment of the historic, universal, aims of humanity.
She was here on earth to make sense of its wild enchantments.
I think life is difficult and that's that. I am not at all - absolutely not at all - interested in the pursuit of happiness. I am not interested in the pursuit of positivity. I am interested in pursuing a truth, and the truth often seems to be not happiness but its opposite.
Talk with M. Hermite. He never evokes a concrete image, yet you soon perceive that the more abstract entities are to him like living creatures.