Education, the great mumbo jumbo and fraud of the age purports to equip us to live and is prescribed as a universal remedy for everything from juvenile delinquency to premature senility.
Malcolm MuggeridgeRead
In retrospect, all these exercises in self-gratification seem pure fantasy, what Pascal called, licking the earth.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the futility of self-indulgence, likening it to an empty pursuit.
Malcolm Muggeridge's quote critiques the nature of self-gratification, suggesting that such pursuits ultimately lead to emptiness and disillusionment. By referencing Pascal's metaphor of 'licking the earth,' he emphasizes that indulging in superficial pleasures may seem satisfying at first, but in retrospect, they reveal a lack of true fulfillment and meaning in life.
Themes
Self-GratificationFantasyFutilityPleasureFulfillment
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of meaningful pursuits, this quote can serve to highlight the difference between pleasure and true satisfaction.
More from Malcolm Muggeridge
All quotes βThis life in us; however low it flickers or fiercely burns, is still a divine flame which no man dare presume to put out, be his motives never so humane and enlightened; To suppose otherwise is to countenance a death-wish; Either life is always and in all circumstances sacred, or intrinsically of no account; it is inconceivable that it should be in some cases the one, and in some the other.
Malcolm MuggeridgeRead
I never met a rich man who was happy, but I have only very occasionally met a poor man who did not want to become a rich man.
Malcolm MuggeridgeRead
It was a somber place, haunted by old jokes and lost laughter. Life, as I discovered, holds no more wretched occupation than trying to make the English laugh.
Malcolm MuggeridgeRead
Bad humor is an evasion of reality; good humor is an acceptance of it.
Malcolm MuggeridgeRead
The only ultimate disaster that can befall us is to feel ourselves at home on this earth.
Malcolm MuggeridgeRead
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