QuoteProject
But the problem is to make the soul into a monster
Arthur Rimbaud
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote suggests that transforming one's essence can lead to destructive consequences.

Arthur Rimbaud's quote reflects the complexity of human nature and the idea that in the pursuit of power or greatness, one may inadvertently corrupt their own spirit or moral values. This transformation, likened to making the soul a 'monster,' can result in a loss of humanity and empathy, highlighting the darker aspects of ambition and self-discovery.

Themes

SoulMonsterTransformationDarknessHuman Nature

In practice

Example use cases

In a discussion about the consequences of ambition in a seminar.

More from Arthur Rimbaud

And from that time on I bathed in the Poem Of the Sea, star-infused and churned into milk, Devouring the green azures; where, entranced in pallid flotsam, A dreaming drowned man sometimes goes down.
Arthur RimbaudRead
My wisdom is as spurned as chaos. What is my nothingness, compared to the amazement that awaits you?
Arthur RimbaudRead
In the great glasshouses streaming with condensation, the children in mourning-dress beheld marvels.
Arthur RimbaudRead
I turned silences and nights into words. What was unutterable, I wrote down. I made the whirling world stand still.
Arthur RimbaudRead
Idle youth, enslaved to everything; by being too sensitive I have wasted my life.
Arthur RimbaudRead
What a life! True life is elsewhere. We are not in the world.
Arthur RimbaudRead

Similar quotes

Most of life is so dull that there is nothing to be said about it, and the books and talk that would describe it as interesting are obliged to exaggerate, in the hope of justifying their own existence.
E. M. ForsterRead
Your goal is not to battle with the mind, but to witness the mind.
Swami MuktanandaRead
It is quite possible--overwhelmingly probable, one might guess--that we will always learn more about human life and personality from novels than from scientific psychology
Noam ChomskyRead
To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.
Thomas JeffersonRead
The more you fulfill yourself, the less you will seek God.
Oswald ChambersRead
Human reason is like a drunken man on horseback; set it up on one side, and it tumbles over on the other
Martin LutherRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.

Quote by Arthur Rimbaud | QuoteProject