The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you're still a rat.
Lily TomlinRead
Truth is, I've always been selling out. The difference is that in the past, I looked like I had integrity because there were no buyers.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the concept of integrity and how it's perceived in relation to market demand and authenticity.
Lily Tomlin's quote explores the idea of selling out, suggesting that true integrity is often a matter of perception rather than a fixed state. In this reflection, she implies that without buyers or demand, it may appear that one is maintaining integrity, but the reality of human motivation and compromise exists regardless of external validation.
Themes
IntegritySelling OutPerceptionAuthenticityIdentity
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about the challenges artists face between commercial success and personal authenticity.
More from Lily Tomlin
All quotes βSometimes I worry about being a success in a mediocre world.
Lily TomlinRead
The road to success is always under construction.
Lily TomlinRead
Ninety eight percent of the adults in this country are decent, hardworking, honest Americans. It's the other lousy two percent that get all the publicity. But then, we elected them.
Lily TomlinRead
Why is it that when we talk to God we're said to be praying but when God talks to us we're schizophrenic?
Lily TomlinRead
Sometimes I feel like a figment of my own imagination.
Lily TomlinRead
Similar quotes
The moon of Mahomet Arose, and it shall set; While, blazoned as on heaven's immortal noon, The cross leads generations on.
Percy Bysshe ShelleyRead
Anti-Semitism is a horrible disease from which nobody is immune, and it has a kind of evil fascination that makes an enlightened person draw near the source of infection, supposedly in a scientific spirit, but really to sniff the vapors and dally with the possibility.
Mary MccarthyRead
Politics is the gizzard of society, full of grit and gravel, and the two political parties are its opposite halves - sometimes split into quarters - which grind on each other. Not only individuals but states have thus a confirmed dyspepsia.
Henry David ThoreauRead
One of the most important decisions you'll ever make is choosing the kind of universe you exist in: is it helpful and supportive or hostile and unsupportive? Your answer to this question will make all the difference in terms of how you live your life and what kind of Divine assistance you attract.
Wayne DyerRead
And what I would say now is, yes, if a state enacted a law permitting flogging, it is immensely stupid, but it is not unconstitutional. A lot of stuff that's stupid is not unconstitutional.
Antonin ScaliaRead
Her heart of compressed ash, which had resisted the most telling blows of daily reality without strain, fell apart with the first waves of nostalgia.
Gabriel Garcia MarquezRead