No idea is so antiquitated that it was not once modern. No idea is so modern that it will not some day be antiquitated . . . to seize the flying thought before it escapes us is our only touch with reality.
Ellen GlasgowRead
The things I feared were not in the sky, but in the nature and in the touch of humanity. The cruelty of children . . . the blindness of the unpitiful - these were my terrors. But not the crash of thunder overhead, not the bolts of fire from the clouds.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Fear often stems from the actions of people rather than from natural phenomena.
Ellen Glasgow's quote highlights a profound insight into the nature of fear, suggesting that it is not the awe-inspiring forces of nature or the dangers that exist in the world that terrify us the most. Instead, it is the cruelty, ignorance, and emotional blindness displayed by humanity, particularly in children, that create our deepest anxieties and apprehensions, revealing the often harsh realities of human interactions.
Themes
FearHumanityCrueltyNatureEmotionsPhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the sources of anxiety, one could cite this quote to emphasize that human actions often perpetrate more fear than natural disasters.
More from Ellen Glasgow
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In the past few years, I have made a thrilling discovery ... that until one is over sixty, one can never really learn the secret of living. One can then begin to live, not simply with the intense part of oneself, but with one's entire being.
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All change is not growth, as all movement is not forward.
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Women like to sit down with trouble - as if it were knitting.
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