How strange to have failed as a social creature—even criminals do not fail that way—they are the law's "Loyal Opposition," so to speak. But the insane are always mere guests on earth, eternal strangers carrying around broken decalogues that they cannot read.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the isolation and disconnect of those deemed insane, contrasting their existence with that of criminals who are recognized members of society.
In this quote, F. Scott Fitzgerald explores the tragic condition of individuals labeled as insane, highlighting their profound alienation from social norms and human experiences. Unlike criminals, who maintain a role in the societal structure as the 'Loyal Opposition,' the insane live as perpetual outsiders, misunderstood and unable to comprehend the moral codes that govern society. Their existence is likened to that of 'eternal strangers,' suggesting a deep sense of loss and the inability to connect with the world around them.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion on mental health awareness to highlight societal attitudes toward the mentally ill.
Don't be so anxious about it,' she laughed. 'I'm not used to being loved. I wouldn't know what to do; I never got the trick of it.' She looked down at him, shy and fatigued. 'So here we are. I told you years ago that I had the makings of Cinderella.' He took her hand; she drew it back instinctively and then replaced it in his. 'Beg your pardon. Not even used to being touched. But I'm not afraid of you, if you stay quiet and don't move suddenly.
The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.
It was about then [1920] that I wrote a line which certain people will not let me forget: "She was a faded but still lovely woman of twenty-seven."
The words seemed to bite physically into Gatsby.
But you can love more than just one person, can't you?
A sudden gust of rain blew over them and then another - as if small liquid clouds were bouncing along the land. Lightning entered the sea far off and the air blew full of crackling thunder. The table cloths blew around the pillars. They blew and blew and blew. The flags twisted around the red chairs like live things, the banners were ragged, the corners of the table tore off through the burbling billowing ends of the cloths.
Likewise grace and glory are referred to the same genus, since grace is nothing other than a certain first beginning of glory in us.
On the whole, men are more good than bad; that, however, isn't the real point. But they are more or less ignorant, and it is this that we call vice or virtue; the most incorrigible vice being that of an ignorance that fancies it knows everything and therefore claims for itself the right to kill. The soul of the murderer is blind; and there can be no true goodness nor true love without the utmost clear-sightedness.
We can be blind to the obvious, and we are also blind to our blindness.
When nonviolence is accepted as the law of life, it must pervade the whole being and not be applied to isolated acts.
The carrying power of a bridge is not the average strength of the pillars, but the strength of the weakest pillar. I have always believed that you do not measure the health of a society by GNP but by the condition of its worst off.
The greatest obstacle in the apostolate of the Church is the timidity or rather the cowardice of the faithful.
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