There is no rest for the humble except in despising the great, whose only thought of the people is inspired by self-interest or sadism.
Interpretation
The humble find no peace without looking down on the self-serving nature of the powerful.
This quote suggests that individuals who are humble and grounded will struggle to find true rest or peace unless they distract themselves by criticizing those in positions of power. Celine implies that the powerful, consumed by self-interest and cruelty, are incapable of genuine concern for the people, which humbles others may find necessary to acknowledge in order to justify their own humility.
In practice
This quote could be used in a discussion about the moral responsibilities of leaders in society.
Not much music left inside us for life to dance to. Our youth has gone to the ends of the earth to die in the silence of the truth. And where, I ask you, can a man escape to, when he hasn't enough madness left inside him? The truth is an endless death agony. The truth is death. You have to choose: death or lies. I've never been able to kill myself.
To travel is very useful, it makes the imagination work, the rest is just delusion and pain. Our journey is entirely imaginary, which is its strength.
In the kitchens of love, after all, vice is like the pepper in a good sauce; it brings out the flavor, itβs indispensable.
Truth is a pain which will not stop. And the truth of this world is to die. You must choose: either dying or lying. Personally, I have never been able to kill myself
Reason died in 1914, November 1914 ... after that everybody began to rave.
Poor people never, or hardly ever, ask for an explanation of all they have to put up with. They hate one another, and content themselves with that.
There are massive efforts on the part of the internet's corporate owners to try to direct it to become a technique of marginalisation and control.
The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.
If trust must be earned, hasn't God unequivocally earned our trust with the bark on the raw wounds, the thorns pressed into the brow, your name on the cracked lips.
People derived too much pleasure from seeing their fellow man morally humiliated to spoil that pleasure by hearing out an explanation.
Capitalism is out of control, thanks in no small part to Citizens United, the Supreme Court decision which said that a corporation is a person, even though it doesn't eat, drink, make love, sing, raise children or take care of aging parents. You can't have a people's democracy as long as corporations are considered people.
Whether the flower looks better in the nosegay than in the meadow where it grew and we had to wet our feet to get it! Is the scholastic air any advantage?
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