But you can't plead with autumn. No. The midnight wind stalked through the woods, hooted to frighten you, swept everything away for the approaching winter, whirled the leaves. ("The North")
Interpretation
The quote expresses the inevitability of change and the passage of time, particularly how seasons transition from autumn to winter.
In this quote, Yevgeny Zamyatin reflects on the relentless nature of change and the inevitability of the cycles of life. Autumn, with its beauty and vibrancy, cannot be pleaded with to remain, as it must yield to the approaching winter. The midnight wind symbolizes the forces that drive change, reminding us that we cannot halt the progression of time or manipulate the seasons of our lives.
In practice
During a speech about personal growth, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of accepting change.
The knife is the most durable, immortal, the most genius thing that man created. The knife was the guillotine; the knife is the universal means of solving all knots; and along the blade of a knife lies the path of paradox - the single most worthy path of the fearless mind.
Accentuated plainness and accentuated vice ought to bring about harmony. Beauty lies in harmony, in style, whether it be the harmony of ugliness or beauty, vice or virtue.
The world is kept alive only by heretics: the heretic Christ, the heretic Copernicus, the heretic Tolstoy. Our symbol of faith is heresy...
The lilac branches are bowed under the weight of the flowers: blooming is hard, and the most important thing is - to bloom. (βA Story About The Most Important Thingβ)
A man is like a novel: until the very last page you don't know how it will end. Otherwise it wouldn't be worth reading.
Knowledge, absolutely sure of its infallibility, is faith.
If you put one model in a show or in an ad campaign, that doesn't solve the problem. We need teachers in universities. We need internships. We need people of different ethnic backgrounds in all parts of the industry. That really is the solution: you have to change it from the inside.
We get stuck in old thought and behavior patterns that may have been effective when we were twelve months or twelve years old, but now only serve to hold us back. And, while those around us may have no problem correcting our minor flaws, they let the big ones slide, because it would mean attacking who we are.
You cannot be the person they know and the great, glorious person you want to become. Not at the same time.
We are going through the eye of the needle; make sure you leave what you don't need behind
A lot of people think the Breakfast for Children program is charity. But what does it do? It takes the people from a stage to another stage. Any program that's revolutionary is an advancing program. Revolution is change.
I don't think anybody who carries a rifle carries the future. Because I don't believe that you can really change the world by killing and shooting. You have the change it by creating and competing.
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