It seems to me that we often commit ourselves wholly to something while knowing almost nothing concrete about it. Another word for that, I suppose, is 'faith.'
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the nature of faith in committing to beliefs or ideas without complete understanding.
Zadie Smith's quote suggests that individuals frequently dedicate themselves entirely to a belief or endeavor without having a thorough grasp of it. This phenomenon is characterized as 'faith', which implies a certain level of trust or assurance despite lacking solid evidence or understanding. It prompts reflection on the nature of our commitments and the idea that sometimes, faith can lead us to invest in things without full clarity.
In practice
Using this quote in a discussion about the nature of belief systems.
Because immigrants have always been particularly prone to repetition - it's something to do with that experience of moving from West to East or East to West or from island to island. Even when you arrive, you're still going back and forth; your children are going round and round. There's no proper term for it - original sin seems too harsh; maybe original trauma would be better.
You know, you don't expect everyone to be as educated as everyone else or have the same achievements, but you expect at least to be offered at least some of the opportunities, and libraries are the most simple and the most open way to give people access to books.
He did not consider if or how or why he loved them. They were just love: they were the first evidence he ever had of love, and they would be the last confirmation of love when everything else fell away.
We cannot be all the writers all the time. We can only be who we are. Which leads me to my second point: writers do not write what they want, they write what they can.
I think of reading like a balanced diet; if your sentences are too baggy, too baroque, cut back on fatty Foster Wallace, say, and pick up Kafka as roughage.
I never attended a creative writing class in my life. I have a horror of them.
It was not in her nature, however, to increase her vexations by dwelling on them. She was confident of having performed her duty, and to fret over unavoidable evils, or augment them by anxiety, was not part of her disposition.
If you have rooms that are very homogeneous, that have all had the same life experiences and educational backgrounds, and they're all relatively wealthy, their perspective on the world is going to mirror what they already know. That can be dangerous when we're making systems that will affect so many diverse populations.
And I smiled to think God's greatness flowed around our incompleteness; Round our restlessness, His rest.
Besides, do any of us understand what we are doing? If we did, would we ever do it?
Force and fraud are in war the two cardinal virtues.
We have a new generation of very rich people who want to do more with their money than buy a lot of expensive toys. They want to live meaningful lives.
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