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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Life is a process of accumulation. We either accumulate the debt or the value, the regret or the equity.
Dhikr (remembrance of Allah) is to the heart as water is to a fish; see what happens to a fish when it is taken out of water
Everything around me is evaporating. My whole life, my memories, my imagination and its contents, my personality - it's all evaporating. I continuously feel that I was someone else, that I felt something else, that I thought something else. What I'm attending here is a show with another set. And the show I'm attending is myself.
A man of the world must seem to be what he wishes to be thought.
This formidable censor of the public functionaries [the press], by arraigning them at the tribunal of public opinion, produces reform peaceably, which must otherwise be done by revolution. It is also the best instrument for enlightening the mind of man and improving him as a rational, moral, and social being.
Men have no right to what is not reasonable, and to what is not for their benefit.