Anyone with gumption and a sharp mind will take the measure of two things: what's said and what's done.
Seamus HeaneyRead
If you go into an underground train in London - probably anywhere, but chiefly in London - there's that sense of almost entering a ghostly dimension. People are very still and quiet; they don't exchange many pleasantries.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the eerie, isolating experience of traveling on the London underground, highlighting the quiet and stillness of strangers.
Seamus Heaney's quote captures the unique atmosphere of the London underground, portraying it as a space that evokes a feeling of being in a different, almost otherworldly realm. In this environment, the typical social interactions and pleasantries are diminished, leading to a collective yet isolated experience where individuals are, despite being close in proximity, distant in their interactions.
Themes
UndergroundLondonIsolationStillnessStrangers
In practice
Example use cases
Use this quote in a discussion about urban life and the nature of social interaction in public spaces.
More from Seamus Heaney
All quotes →What I've said before, only half in joke, is that everybody in Ireland is famous. Or, maybe better, say everybody is familiar.
Seamus HeaneyRead
The kinds of truth that art gives us many, many times are small truths. They don't have the resonance of an encyclical from the Pope stating an eternal truth, but they partake of the quality of eternity. There is a sort of timeless delight in them.
Seamus HeaneyRead
If self is a location, so is love: Bearings taken, markings, cardinal points, Options, obstinacies, dug heels, and distance, Here and there and now and then, a stance.
Seamus HeaneyRead
In my early teens, I acquired a kind of representative status: went on behalf of the family to wakes and funerals and so on. And I would be counted on as an adult contributor when it came to farm work - the hay in the summertime, for example.
Seamus HeaneyRead
I think that water is immediately interesting. It's just, as an element, it is full of life. It is associated with origin; it is bright - it reflects you.
Seamus HeaneyRead
Similar quotes
If you strike a child, take care that you strike it in anger, even at the risk of maiming it for life. A blow in cold blood neither can nor should be forgiven.
George Bernard ShawRead
History is, strictly speaking, the study of questions; the study of answers belongs to anthropology and sociology.
W. H. AudenRead
Logotherapy sees the human patient in all his humanness. I step up to the core of the patient's being. And that is a being in search of meaning, a being that is transcending himself, a being capable of acting in love for others.
Viktor E. FranklRead
Crime is a product of social excess.
Vladimir LeninRead
So potent was religion in persuading to evil deeds.
LucretiusRead
A true libertarian supports free enterprise, opposes big business; supports local self-government, opposes the nation-state; supports the National Rifle Association, opposes the Pentagon.
Edward AbbeyRead