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
What this quote means
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.
Themes
ChaosPlanningLifePatternSociety
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about resilience, this quote can be used to highlight the importance of embracing chaos.
More from Ralph Ellison
All quotes →I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.
Ralph EllisonRead
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.
Ralph EllisonRead
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.
Ralph EllisonRead
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.
Ralph EllisonRead
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.
Ralph EllisonRead
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