. . . money . . . is really the difference between men and animals, most of the things men feel, animals feel, and vice versa, but animals do not know about money.
Gertrude SteinRead
In the United States there is more space where nobody is than where anybody is. This is what makes American what it is.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the vastness and emptiness of space in America, suggesting that this unique characteristic shapes its identity.
Gertrude Stein's observation reflects on the expansive landscape of the United States, where there are large stretches of uninhabited land compared to populated areas. This abundance of 'empty' space can be seen as a metaphor for the American spirit—emphasizing freedom, opportunity, and the pursuit of individuality, which has played a significant role in shaping the nation’s culture and identity.
Themes
SpaceIdentityFreedomLandscapeCulture
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could serve as a powerful opening in a speech about American culture and values.
More from Gertrude Stein
All quotes →The creator of the new composition in the arts is an outlaw until he is a classic.
Gertrude SteinRead
If the communication is perfect, the words have life, and that is all there is to good writing, putting down on the paper words which dance and weep and make love and fight and kiss and perform miracles.
Gertrude SteinRead
The United States is just now the oldest country in the world, there always is an oldest country and she is it, it is she who is the mother of the twentieth century civilization. She began to feel herself as it just after the Civil War. And so it is a country the right age to have been born in and the wrong age to live in.
Gertrude SteinRead
I simply contend that the middle-class ideal which demands that people be affectionate, respectable, honest and content, that they avoid excitements and cultivate serenity is the ideal that appeals to me, it is in short the ideal of affectionate family life, of honorable business methods.
Gertrude SteinRead
It is natural to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes to that siren until she allures us to our death.
Gertrude SteinRead
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Though silence is not necessarily an admission, it is not a denial, either.
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