The heaventree of stars hung with humid nightblue fruit.
James JoyceRead
The State is concentric, but the individual is eccentric.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the contrast between societal norms and individual uniqueness.
James Joyce's quote suggests that while the state or society tends to be uniform and centralized, individuals often possess unique and divergent traits that set them apart. This dichotomy reflects the tension between societal expectations and personal identity, where conformity often rules but individuality persists.
Themes
StateIndividualEccentricityConformitySociety
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of individuality in creativity.
More from James Joyce
All quotes →I think a child should be allowed to take his father's or mother's name at will on coming of age. Paternity is a legal fiction.
James JoyceRead
If he had smiled why would he have smiled? To reflect that each one who enters imagines himself to be the first to enter whereas he is always the last term of a preceding series even if the first term of a succeeding one, each imagining himself to be first, last, only and alone whereas he is neither first nor last nor only nor alone in a series originating in and repeated to infinity.
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Gentle lady, do not sing Sad songs about the end of love; Lay aside sadness and sing How love that passes is enough. Sing about the long deep sleep Of lovers that are dead, and how In the grave all love shall sleep: Love is aweary now.
James JoyceRead
I am tomorrow, or some future day, what I establish today. I am today what I established yesterday or some previous day.
James JoyceRead
The movements which work revolutions in the world are born out of the dreams and visions in a peasant's heart on the hillside.
James JoyceRead
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In itself and in its consequences the life of leisure is beautiful and ennobling in all civilised men's eyes.
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