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No 'we' should be taken for granted when the subject is looking at other people's pain.
Susan Sontag
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Interpretation

What this quote means

It emphasizes the importance of empathy and awareness regarding others' suffering.

Susan Sontag's quote urges us not to overlook the collective experience of pain that others endure. It highlights the necessity of acknowledging and addressing the suffering around us, rather than becoming indifferent or detached from it, thereby reinforcing our shared humanity.

Themes

EmpathySufferingPainAwarenessHumanity

In practice

Example use cases

During a discussion on social justice, this quote could be used to highlight the importance of empathy.

More from Susan Sontag

Like the collector, the photographer is animated by a passion that, even when it appears to be for the present, is linked to a sense of the past.
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Science fiction films are not about science. They are about disaster, which is one of the oldest subjects of art.
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Gide and I have attained such perfect intellectual communion that I experience the appropriate labor pains for every thought he gives birth to!
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Volume depends precisely on the writer's having been able to sit in a room every day, year after year, alone.
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In NY sensuality completely turns into sexuality - no objects for the senses to respond to, no beautiful river, houses, people. Awful smells of the street, and dirt... Nothing except eating, if that, and the frenzy of the bed.
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It hurts to love. It's like giving yourself to be flayed and knowing that at any moment the other person may just walk off with your skin.
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