In a world without air all you breathe is adventure!
It is a violation which has obsessed the tyrants of the twentieth century. They do not want simply to kill their opponents, but to liquidate them, to deny that they have ever existed.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the extreme lengths to which tyrants go to erase their opposition and deny their existence.
Helen Dunmore's quote sheds light on the destructive mindset of tyrants in the twentieth century, emphasizing that their goal extends beyond mere physical elimination of opponents. Instead, they seek to obliterate the very memory and existence of those who oppose them, highlighting not only the brutality of their actions but also the deep psychological impact of totalitarian regimes that strive to reshape reality itself by denying others' identities.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion on authoritarian regimes, this quote could highlight how historical tyrants sought to erase their opposition.
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We must respect the interior laws of creation, of this Earth, to learn these laws and obey them if we want to survive.
I am frankly sick and tired of the political preachers telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in A, B, C, and D. Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me?
In the past, men created witches: now they create mental patients.
Christ lived the life we could not live and took the punishment we could not take to offer the hope we cannot resist.
The night is darkening round me, _x000D_ The wild winds coldly blow; _x000D_ But a tyrant spell has bound me _x000D_ And I cannot, cannot go. _x000D_ The giant trees are bending _x000D_ Their bare boughs weighed with snow; _x000D_ The storm is fast descending, _x000D_ And yet I cannot go. _x000D_ Clouds beyond clouds above me, _x000D_ Wastes beyond wastes below; _x000D_ But nothing drear can move me; _x000D_ I will not, cannot go.
If we are made in some degree for others, yet in a greater are we made for ourselves. It were contrary to feeling and indeed ridiculous to suppose that a man had less rights in himself than one of his neighbors, or indeed all of them put together. This would be slavery, and not that liberty which the bill of rights has made inviolable, and for the preservation of which our government has been charged.