Try any goddam thing you like, no matter how boringly normal or outrageous. If it works, fine. If it doesn't, toss it. Toss it even if you love it.
Stephen KingRead
As a species we're fundamentally insane. Put more than two of us in a room, we pick sides and start dreaming up reasons to kill one another. Why do you think we invented politics and religion?
Interpretation
What this quote means
Human nature often leads to conflict and division, prompting the creation of politics and religion.
This quote by Stephen King reflects on the inherent nature of humanity, suggesting that when individuals gather in groups, they tend to form factions and create justifications for conflict. It implies that such divisions are so deeply rooted in our psyche that they necessitate systems like politics and religion, which serve as frameworks for understanding and managing these conflicts, albeit often exacerbating them.
Themes
Human NatureConflictPoliticsReligionDivision
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the nature of politics, one might quote Stephen King to highlight how our instinct for division drives societal structures.
More from Stephen King
All quotes →Eddie discovered one of his childhood's great truths. Grownups are the real monsters, he thought.
Stephen KingRead
Hairstyles change, and skirt lengths, and slang, but high school administrations? Never.
Stephen KingRead
Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the reader’s.
Stephen KingRead
That's the day's business. Thinking. Thinking and isolation, because it doesn't matter if you pass the time of day with someone or not; in the end, you're alone. He seemed to have put in as many miles in his brain as he had with his feet. The thoughts kept coming and there was no way to deny them.
Stephen KingRead
Late last night and the night before, tommyknockers, tommyknockers knocking on my door. I wanna go out, don't know if I can 'cuz I'm so afraid of the tommyknocker man.
Stephen KingRead
Similar quotes
All sins are attempts to fill voids.
Simone WeilRead
I don't think anyone is qualified to answer questions of eternal fate definitively, much less pinpoint it to a given day.
Jon MeachamRead
The value of a man can only be measured with regard to other men.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
Every one of us is a mystic. We may or may not realize it, we may not even like it. But whether we know it or not, whether we accept it or not, mystical experience is always there, inviting us on a journey of ultimate discovery. We have been given the gift of life in this perplexing world to become who we ultimately are: creatures of boundless love, caring compassion, and wisdom. Existence is a summons to the eternal journey of the sage - the sage we all are, if only we could see.
Wayne TeasdaleRead
Life is not about finding our limitations, it's about finding our infinity.
Herbie HancockRead
We're all imperfect, and life is simply a perpetual, unending struggle against those imperfections.
Sidney PoitierRead