They don't ask much of you. They only want you to hate the things you love and to love the things you despise.
Boris PasternakRead
As for the men in power, they are so anxious to establish the myth of infallibility that they do their utmost to ignore truth.
Interpretation
Those in power often prioritize their image over the truth.
Boris Pasternak highlights the tendency of those in authority to construct a false narrative of perfection, which leads them to dismiss or overlook the truth. This observation suggests that the desire to maintain a flawless reputation can result in a dangerous detachment from reality, affecting the integrity of leadership and the trust of the public.
In practice
In a debate about governmental accountability, one might use this quote to emphasize the dangers of power without truth.
They don't ask much of you. They only want you to hate the things you love and to love the things you despise.
Even so, one step from my grave, I believe that cruelty, spite, The powers of darkness will in time, Be crushed by the spirit of light.
He is her glory. Any woman could say it. For every one of them, God is in her child. Mothers of great men must have been familiar with this feeling, but then, all women are mothers of great men -- it isn't their fault if life disappoints them later.
Our evenings are farewells. Our parties are testaments. So that the secret stream of suffering. May warm the cold of life.
The most extraordinary discoveries are made when the artist is overwhelmed by what he has to say.
Oh, how one wishes sometimes to escape from the meaningless dullness of human eloquence, from all those sublime phrases, to take refuge in nature, apparently so inarticulate, or in the wordlessness of long, grinding labor, of sound sleep, of true music, or of a human understanding rendered speechless by emotion!
My soul knows my meat is doing bad things, and is embarrassed. But my meat just keeps right on doing bad, dumb things.
I will far rather see the race of man extinct than that we should become less than beasts by making the noblest of God's creation, woman, the object of our lust.
In its majestic equality, the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets and steal loaves of bread.
If you begin by saying, 'Thou shalt not lie,' there is no longer any possibility of political action.
Man always is perfect, or he never could become so; but he had to realise it.
All legitimate government is a mutual insurance company, voluntarily agreed upon by the parties to it, for the protection of their rights against wrong-doers. In its voluntary character it is precisely similar to an association for mutual protection against fire or shipwreck.
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