Life is to be lived, not controlled, and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat.
Ralph EllisonRead
And the mind that has conceived a plan of living must never lose sight of the chaos against which that pattern was conceived. That goes for societies as well as for individuals.
Interpretation
A plan for life must acknowledge the inherent chaos around us.
Ralph Ellison’s quote expresses the idea that any structured approach to living, whether for individuals or societies, must consider the unpredictability and disorder of the world. It suggests that the plans we make are developed in response to, and in contrast with, the chaos of life, which is an essential aspect that must not be ignored for effective living and understanding.
In practice
In a motivational speech about resilience, this quote can be used to highlight the importance of embracing chaos.
Life is to be lived, not controlled, and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat.
I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.
I denounce because though implicated and partially responsible, I have been hurt to the point of abysmal pain, hurt to the point of invisibility. And I defend because in spite of it all, I find that I love.
The blues is an art of ambiguity, an assertion of the irrepressibly human over all circumstance whether created by others or by one's own human failings. They are the only consistent art in the United States which constantly remind us of our limitations while encouraging us to see how far we can actually go. When understood in their more profound implication, they are a corrective, an attempt to draw a line upon man's own limitless assertion.
If you can show me how I can cling to that which is real to me, while teaching me a way into the larger society, then and only then will I drop my defenses and hostility, and I will sing your praises and help you to make the desert bear fruit.
All novels are about certain minorities: the individual is a minority. The universal in the novel-and isn't that what we're all clamoring for these days?-is reached only through the depiction of the specific man in a specific circumstance.
Life and death are balanced as it were on the edge of a razor
To all new truths, or renovation of old truths, it must be as in the ark between the destroyed and the about-to-be renovated world. The raven must be sent out before the dove, and ominous controversy must precede peace and the olive wreath.
It is an absolute and virtually divine perfection to know how to enjoy our being rightfully.
For many people, one of the most frustrating aspects of life is not being able to understand other people's behavior.
When you die, it will not be because you are sick, but because you were alive.
The World War I, I'm a child of World War I. And I really know about the children of war. Because both my parents were both badly damaged by the war. My father, physically, and both mentally and emotionally. So, I know exactly what it's like to be brought up in an atmosphere of a continual harping on the war.
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