They do not need the sun. Who needs the sun when the eyes glow? Darkness. A woolen fog has wrapped the earth, has dropped a heavy curtain. From far away, from beyond the curtain, comes the sound of drops falling on stone. Far, far away - the autumn, people, tomorrow. ("The North")
Interpretation
The quote suggests that natural light is not essential for beauty or existence, as perception and emotion can still thrive in darkness.
In this quote, Zamyatin explores the idea that the essence of life and experience can transcend the physical needs typically associated with light and visibility. The imagery of darkness and the glowing eyes implies an inner light or understanding that persists despite external conditions. It reflects on how emotions and perceptions can illuminate our understanding of the world, even when faced with challenges or obstacles.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion about overcoming challenges in life.
The knife is the most durable, immortal, the most genius thing that man created. The knife was the guillotine; the knife is the universal means of solving all knots; and along the blade of a knife lies the path of paradox - the single most worthy path of the fearless mind.
Accentuated plainness and accentuated vice ought to bring about harmony. Beauty lies in harmony, in style, whether it be the harmony of ugliness or beauty, vice or virtue.
The world is kept alive only by heretics: the heretic Christ, the heretic Copernicus, the heretic Tolstoy. Our symbol of faith is heresy...
The lilac branches are bowed under the weight of the flowers: blooming is hard, and the most important thing is - to bloom. (“A Story About The Most Important Thing”)
A man is like a novel: until the very last page you don't know how it will end. Otherwise it wouldn't be worth reading.
Knowledge, absolutely sure of its infallibility, is faith.
My long struggles as a soldier of the Chinese Revolution have forced me to realize the necessity of facing hard facts. There will be neither peace, nor hope, nor future for any of us unless we honestly aim at political, social and economic justice for all peoples of the world, great and small.
It is harder to preserve than to obtain liberty.
I and my public understand each other very well: it does not hear what I say, and I don't say what it wants to hear.
I think the O.J. Simpson trial was a revelation about the ongoing patterns of racial difference in American society.
For the past several years, I have remained what others would consider underground. I did this in order to build a community of people, like-minded in their desire for freedom and the right to pursue their goals and lives without being manipulated and controlled by a media protected military industrial complex with a completely different agenda.
A distant enemy is always preferable to one at the gate.
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