For thousands of years, men have written history, so it seems to me that most of what we've read is from the male point of view.
Stacy SchiffRead
Reality does not easily give up meaning; it's the biographer's job to clobber it into submission. You're meant not only to tame it but to extract substance, to identify cause and axiomatic effect. You subsist on the tactical omissions, the hollow words, the oddly unconnected dots.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the challenge of deriving meaning from reality, highlighting the biographer's role in shaping and interpreting it.
Stacy Schiff's quote reflects on the complex nature of reality and the often arduous task of making sense of it. It suggests that individuals must actively engage with the world, challenging and reshaping their perceptions to uncover deeper truths. The metaphor of the biographer signifies the effort to craft a narrative that not only acknowledges the superficial aspects of life but digs deeper to elucidate connections and meanings that might otherwise remain obscured.
Themes
RealityMeaningBiographyInterpretationTruth
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about the power of perspective, one might say: 'As Stacy Schiff rightly puts it, reality does not easily give up its meaning; we must engage with it to uncover the truth.'
More from Stacy Schiff
All quotes →And in the absence of facts, myth rushes in, the kudzu of history.
Stacy SchiffRead
It has always been preferable to attribute a woman's success to her beauty rather than to her brains, to reduce her to the sum of her sex life.
Stacy SchiffRead
Cleopatra had one great advantage. She lived at a time when female sovereigns were not anomalies. And when women enjoyed rights they would not again enjoy for another 2,000 years. You could call them early feminists, if I may use a dirty word.
Stacy SchiffRead
Power has for so long been a male construct that it distorted the shape of the first women who tried it on, only to find themselves in a sort of straitjacket.
Stacy SchiffRead
Women enjoyed rights in Egypt they would not again enjoy for more than 2,000 years. They owned ships, ran vineyards, filed lawsuits, practiced medicine. Their husbands supported them after divorce. Their power was unprecedented.
Stacy SchiffRead
Similar quotes
Let us take a patriot, where we can meet him; and, that we may not flatter ourselves by false appearances, distinguish those marks which are certain, from those which may deceive; for a man may have the external appearance of a patriot, without the constituent qualities; as false coins have often lustre, though they want weight.
Samuel JohnsonRead
When the freedom they wished for most was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free and was never free again.
Edith HamiltonRead
I have never smuggled anything in my life. Why, then, do I feel an uneasy sense of guilt on approaching a customs barrier?
John SteinbeckRead
America was founded by people who believe that God was their rock of safety. I recognize we must be cautious in claiming that God is on our side, but I think it's all right to keep asking if we're on His side.
Ronald ReaganRead
Living on $6 a day means you have a refrigerator, a TV, a cell phone, your children can go to school. That's not possible on $1 a day.
Bill GatesRead
An almost perfect relationship with his father was the earthly root of all his wisdom. From his own father, he said, he first learned that Fatherhood must be at the core of the universe. [speaking of George MacDonald]
C. S. LewisRead