The despondency that follows makes me feel somewhat like a shipwrecked man who spies a sail, sees himself saved, and suddenly remembers that the lens of his spyglass has a flaw, a blurred spot -- the sail he has seen.
Jean GenetRead
I recognize in thieves, traitors and murderers, in the ruthless and the cunning, a deep beauty - a sunken beauty.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that even the most morally corrupt individuals possess a hidden or overlooked beauty within them.
Jean Genet's quote reflects a complex understanding of human nature, proposing that individuals often labeled as 'thieves, traitors, and murderers' may embody a profound, albeit dark, beauty. This beauty is described as 'sunken,' indicating that it is not apparent on the surface and exists beneath the moral failings and social stigmas. Genet challenges the reader to look beyond conventional judgments and recognize the complexity and depth inherent in all human beings, regardless of their actions.
Themes
BeautyHuman NatureMoralityComplexityEthics
In practice
Example use cases
During a discussion on the philosophy of morality in a university class.
More from Jean Genet
All quotes βErotic play discloses a nameless world which is revealed by the nocturnal language of lovers. Such language is not written down. It is whispered into the ear at night in a hoarse voice. At dawn it is forgotten.
Jean GenetRead
I'm homosexual. How and why are idle questions. It's a little like wanting to know why my eyes are green.
Jean GenetRead
I wanted to swallow myself by opening my mouth very wide and turning it over my head so that it would take in my whole body, and then the Universe, until all that would remain of me would be a ball of eaten thing which little by little would be annihilated: that is how I see the end of the world.
Jean GenetRead
I decided to be what crime made of me.
Jean GenetRead
It's a true image, born of a false spectacle.
Jean GenetRead
Similar quotes
Is it treason to say the truth? A bitter truth, but no less true for that.
George R. R. MartinRead
The Constitution is a pantheon of values, and a lot of hard cases are hard because the Constitution gives no simple rule of decision for the cases in which one of the values is truly at odds with another.
David SouterRead
If no one else, the dying must notice how unreal, how full of pretense, is all that we accomplish here, where nothing is allowed to be itself.
Rainer Maria RilkeRead
When you realize the value of all life, you dwell less on what is past and concentrate more on the preservation of the future.
Dian FosseyRead
I shall assume that your silence gives consent.
PlatoRead
Even an entire society, a nation, or all simultaneously existing societies taken together, are not owners of the earth. They are simply its possessors, its beneficiaries, and have to bequeath it in an improved state to succeeding generations.
Karl MarxRead