When I have worries, fears or a love affair, I have the luck of being able to transform it into a poem.
Mario BenedettiRead
I think the only positive thing that came from Uruguay's dictatorship was the spread of Montevideo natives around the world, and I continued writing about them from my various places of exile.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the unintended positive outcomes of a difficult situation, noting how adversity can lead to broader cultural appreciation.
In this quote, Mario Benedetti acknowledges that despite the oppressive regime in Uruguay, one silver lining was the diaspora of Montevideo natives. This experience of exile not only allowed him to connect with his roots from afar but also inspired his writing, highlighting the resilience of culture and identity in the face of hardship.
In practice
This quote could be used in a speech about resilience during tough political climates.
When I have worries, fears or a love affair, I have the luck of being able to transform it into a poem.
I believe life is a parenthesis between two nothings. I'm an atheist. I believe in a personal God, which is conscience, and that's what we must be accountable to every day.
We are born sad and we die sad, but meanwhile we love bodies whose sad beauty is a miracle.
Five minutes are enough to dream a whole life, that is how relative time is.
After all Death is a Symbol that there was Life.
We so often tend to think our democracies are ruled by procedures and laws, but they are also governed by implicit rules and assumptions and one of them is the ability to feel shame - that you can be shamed.
Surely what a man does when he is taken off guard is the best evidence for what sort of man he is. If there are rats in a cellar, you are most likely to see them if you go in very suddenly. But the suddenness does not create the rats; it only prevents them from hiding. In the same way the suddenness of the provocation does not make me ill tempered; it only shows me what an ill-tempered man I am.
There is only one good. And that is to act according to the dictates of one's conscience.
If your religion doesn't respect the rights of other religions, it is lacking something.
Mythology is often defined as 'other peoples' religions', religion can be thought of as misinterpreted mythology.
If we have chosen the position in life in which we can most of all work for mankind, no burdens can bow us down, because they are sacrifices for the benefit of all; then we shall experience no petty, limited, selfish joy, but our happiness will belong to millions, our deeds will live on quietly but perpetually at work, and over our ashes will be shed the hot tears of noble people.
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