The war had made a man of him! It had coarsened him and hardened him. There was no other way to look at it. It had made him reach a point at which he would no longer stand unbearable things.
Ford Madox FordRead
Mind, I am not preaching anything contrary to accepted morality. I am not advocating free love in this or any other case. Society must go on, I suppose, and society can only exist if the normal, if the virtuous, and the slightly deceitful flourish, and if the passionate, the headstrong, and the too-truthful are condemned to suicide and madness.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the balance between societal norms and individual passion, suggesting that society thrives on a mix of virtue and a controlled expression of truth.
Ford Madox Ford's quote delves into the complex relationship between individual desires and societal expectations. He implies that while society requires adherence to certain moral standards and norms, it simultaneously stifles the passions and authenticity of those who are too truthful or headstrong. In essence, he argues that while society's fabric relies on conventional behavior, it often marginalizes those who cannot conform, leading to internal turmoil and existential struggles.
Themes
SocietyTruthMoralityPassionIndividualNorms
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the balance between personal freedom and societal norms, this quote can highlight the challenges faced by those who are too honest.
More from Ford Madox Ford
All quotes →There is no man who loves a woman that does not desire to come to her for the renewal of his courage, for the cutting asunder of his difficulties. And that will be the mainspring of his desire for her. We are all so afraid, we are all so alone, we all so need from the outside the assurance of our own worthiness to exist.
Ford Madox FordRead
You have to wait together - for a week, for a year, for a lifetime, before the final intimate conversation may be attained ... and exhausted. So that ... That in effect was love.
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Open the book to page ninety-nine and read, and the quality of the whole will be revealed to you.
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It is not merely that people must die and people must suffer, if not here, then there. But what is dreadful is that the world goes on and people go on being stupidly cruel - in the old ways and all the time.
Ford Madox FordRead
The first thing you have to consider when writing a novel is your story, and then your story - and then your story!
Ford Madox FordRead
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