When I have one martini, I feel bigger, wiser, taller. When I have a second, I feel superlative. When I have more, there's no holding me.
William FaulknerRead
I took out my watch and listened to it clicking away, not knowing it couldn't even lie
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on the nature of time and the perception of reality, suggesting that time doesn't deceive us, but our understanding of it might.
In this quote, William Faulkner illustrates a moment of introspection where he acknowledges the relentless passage of time as indicated by the ticking of his watch. The phrase 'not knowing it couldn't even lie' implies that while time is a constant and honest force, our interpretations and feelings about it can often be misleading. This suggests a philosophical viewpoint on the human experience with time, where one may be oblivious to the truths underlying their perceptions.
Themes
TimeHonestyPerceptionRealityPhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of valuing time, one might say, 'As Faulkner reminds us, time itself is honest, and itβs how we perceive it that often confuses us.'
More from William Faulkner
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When grown people speak of the innocence of children, they dont really know what they mean. Pressed, they will go a step further and say, Well, ignorance then. The child is neither. There is no crime which a boy of eleven had not envisaged long ago. His only innocence is, he may not be old enough to desire the fruits of it...his ignorance is, he does not know how to commit it...
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Maybe times are never strange to women: it is just one continuous monotonous thing full of the repeated follies of their menfolks.
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He had a word, too. Love, he called it. But I had been used to words for a long time. I knew that that word was like the others: just a shape to fill a lack; that when the right time came, you wouldn't need a word for that any more than for pride or fear....One day I was talking to Cora. She prayed for me because she believed I was blind to sin, wanting me to kneel and pray too, because people to whom sin is just a matter of words, to them salvation is just words too.
William FaulknerRead
Ever since then I have believed that God is not only a gentleman and a sport; he is a Kentuckian too.
William FaulknerRead
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