QuoteProject
We've come from the same history - 2000 years of persecution - we've just expressed our sufferings differently. Blacks developed the blues. Jews complained, we just never thought of putting it to music.
Jon Stewart
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote highlights how different communities express their shared sufferings through art and culture.

Jon Stewart reflects on the historical experiences of different marginalized groups, specifically noting that while Jews have often vocalized their struggles, Black people transformed their pain into a musical genre. This serves as a commentary on the different methods of expression that arise from shared suffering, illustrating how art can be a profound outlet for emotional and cultural experiences.

Themes

HistorySufferingMusicExpressionBluesCulture

In practice

Example use cases

This quote could be used in a discussion about the role of art in expressing social issues at a community event.

More from Jon Stewart

I still do not understand how a corporation can have person-hood if it has no soul and never dies.
Jon StewartRead
President Bush announced his new economic plan. The centerpiece was a proposed repeal of the dividend tax on stocks, a boon that could be worth millions of dollars to average Americans. Well, average stock-owning Americans. Technically, Americans who own a significant amount of shares in dividend-dealing companies. Well, rich people, that's what I'm trying to say. They're going to do really well with this.
Jon StewartRead
Wait a minute! Wait a minute! I figured this out. I know what's wrong with what we've done in Iraq. We've been following time as it goes forward. What a classic mistake. Linear time is so pre-9-11.
Jon StewartRead
You just have to keep trying to do good work, and hope that it leads to more good work. I want to look back on my career and be proud of the work, and be proud that I tried everything. Yes, I want to look back and know that I was terrible at a variety of things.
Jon StewartRead
If you don't stick to your values when they're being tested, they're not values: they're hobbies.
Jon StewartRead
Thomas Jefferson once said: 'Of course the people don't want war. But the people can be brought to the bidding of their leader. All you have to do is tell them they're being attacked and denounce the pacifists for somehow a lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.' I think that was Jefferson. Oh wait. That was Hermann Goering. Shoot." [Hosting the Peabody Awards for broadcasting excellence at the New York Waldorf-Astoria, June 6, 2006]
Jon StewartRead

Similar quotes

As I listen to the silence, I learn that my feelings about art and my feelings about the Creator of the Universe are inseparable. To try to talk about art and about Christianity is for me one and the same thing, and it means attempting to share the meaning of my life, what gives it, for me, its tragedy and its glory.
Madeleine L'EngleRead
Most architects think in drawings, or did think in drawings; today, they think on the computer monitor. I always tried to think three dimensionally. The interior eye of the brain should be not flat but three dimensional so that everything is an object in space. We are not living in a two-dimensional world.
Frei OttoRead
I went to the zoo one day and saw a chimp playing with a beat-up acoustic guitar in a way I had never seen before. Instead of using the pick the chimp was banging the neck and tapping it with its fingers. I knew the chimp was on to something so I practiced this new technique in my room for hours until I'd perfected it.
Eddie Van HalenRead
You know how a lot of people say, 'I lose myself in music,' or 'I like to escape,' but I want my music to be more of an awakening. I want it to make people to be aware of life; I don't want my music to be a distraction. I want to light a path.
Jhene AikoRead
If you're a fiction writer, though, I can tell you how to let people talk through you. Listen. Just be quiet, and listen. Let the character talk. Don't censor, don't control. Listen, and write.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
Music is the one part of the entertainment business where you can't fool anybody into buying a record.
Nile RodgersRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.