We must beware the revenge of the starved senses, the embittered animal in its prison.
J. B. PriestleyRead
The people who pretend that dying is rather like strolling into the next room always leave me unconvinced. Death, like birth, must be a tremendous event.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Death should be seen as a significant event, not something trivial.
J. B. Priestley suggests that death, akin to birth, is a monumental event that deserves profound recognition and contemplation. The act of downplaying death as simple or inconsequential diminishes its gravity and the deep emotions and transformations associated with it, leaving a lasting impression that warrants deeper understanding and respect.
Themes
DeathLifeEventBirthPhilosophyTranscendence
In practice
Example use cases
During a eulogy, one might quote, 'Death, like birth, must be a tremendous event' to highlight the significance of life transitions.
More from J. B. Priestley
All quotes βBut some of us are beginning to pull well away, in our irritation, from...the exquisite tasters, the vintage snobs, the three-star Michelin gourmets. There is, we feel, a decent area somewhere between boiled carrots and Beluga caviare, sour plonk and Chateau Lafitte, where we can take care of our gullets and bellies without worshipping them.
J. B. PriestleyRead
A novelist who writes nothing for 10 years finds his reputation rising. Because I keep on producing books they say there must be something wrong with this fellow.
J. B. PriestleyRead
Much of writing might be described as mental pregnancy with successive difficult deliveries.
J. B. PriestleyRead
There is romance, the genuine glinting stuff, in typewriters, and not merely in their development from clumsy giants into agile dwarfs, but in the history of their manufacture, which is filled with raids, battles, lonely pioneers, great gambles, hope, fear, despair, triumph. If some of our novels could be written by the typewriters instead of on them, how much better they would be.
J. B. PriestleyRead
We plan, we toil, we suffer - in the hope of what? A camel-load of idol's eyes? The title deeds of Radio City? The empire of Asia? A trip to the moon? No, no, no, no. Simply to wake just in time to smell coffee and bacon and eggs.
J. B. PriestleyRead
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