Was it always my nature to take a bad time and block out the good times, until any success became an accident and failure seemed the only truth?
Lillian HellmanRead
No one can argue any longer about the rights of women. It's like arguing about earthquakes.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes that women's rights are undeniably fundamental, much like natural phenomena that cannot be disputed.
Lillian Hellman draws a powerful parallel between the undeniable nature of earthquakes and the established rights of women, suggesting that just as it is futile to argue the occurrence of earthquakes, it is equally pointless to contest women's rights. Her statement serves as a call to acknowledge and respect these rights as inherent truths that should be universally recognized and upheld.
In practice
In a speech for a women's rights event, one might use this quote to highlight the legitimacy of women's rights as a societal norm.
Was it always my nature to take a bad time and block out the good times, until any success became an accident and failure seemed the only truth?
If I had to give young writers advice, I would say don't listen to writers talking about writing or themselves.
It is best to act with confidence, no matter how little right you have to it.
If you believe, as the Greeks did, that man is at the mercy of the gods, then you write tragedy. The end is inevitable from the beginning. But if you believe that man can solve his own problems and is at nobody's mercy, then you will probably write melodrama.
Nobody knows what you want except you. And nobody will be as sorry as you if you don't get it. Wanting some other way to live is proof enough of deserving it. Having it is hard work, but not having it is sheer hell.
Failure in the theater is more dramatic and uglier than any other form of writing. It costs so much, you feel so guilty.
That one indeed is a man who, today, dedicateth himself to the service of the entire human race. The Great Being saith: Blessed and happy is he that ariseth to promote the best interests of the peoples and kindreds of the earth. It is not for him to pride himself who loveth his own country, but rather for him who loveth the whole world. The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens.
In so many of our communities and countries, racism is endemic. It's built in, like a rot in a frame.
Whoever prefers life to death, happiness to suffering, well-being to misery must defend without compromise private ownership in the means of production.
When we become truly ourselves, we just become a swinging door, and we are purely independent of, and at the same time, dependent upon everything.
Who are you to condemn another's sin? He who condemns sin becomes part of it, espouses it.
despite all our desperate, eternal attempts to separate, contain and mend, categories always leak.
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