Whatever the misery, he could not regain contentment with a world which, once doubted, became absurd.
Interpretation
The quote reflects a sense of despair and absurdity in perceiving the world after losing faith in it.
Sinclair Lewis expresses that once a person has questioned the reality and morality of the world around them, it becomes impossible to find peace or happiness within it. The sense of absurdity arises from the contradiction between the pursuit of contentment and the disillusionment that comes from recognizing the world's flaws.
In practice
During a philosophy class discussion on existentialism.
Upon this theology he rarely pondered. The kernel of his practical religion was that it was respectable, and beneficial to one's business, to be seen going to services; that the church kept the Worst Elements from being still worse; and that the pastor's sermons, however dull they might seem at the time of taking, yet had a voodooistic power which 'did a fellow good-- kept him in touch with Higher Things.
Intellectually I know that America is no better than any other country; emotionally I know she is better than every other country.
Writers kid themselves-about themselves and other people. Take the talk about writing methods. Writing is just work-there's no secret. If you dictate or use a pen or type with your toes-it is just work.
She did her work with the thoroughness of a mind which reveres details and never quite understands them.
Writing is just work-there's no secret. If you dictate or use a pen or type or write with your toes-it's still just work.
It is, I think, an error to believe that there is any need of religion to make life seem worth living.
The last function of reason is to recognize that there are an infinity of things which surpass it.
This is the fast lane, folks...and some of us like it here.
No written law has ever been more binding than unwritten custom supported by popular opinion.
Every nation has the right to demand proper treatment and no country should violate the territory of any other country.
The FHA literally drew up the redlining map and then basically distributed - I'm sorry, the Home Owners' Loan Corporation actually did it, and then distributed to banks who used that as policy to determine how they would lend and who they would lend to. The racism in the system was pervasive and total.
The number and richness of man's signifiers always surpasses the set of defined objects that could be termed signifieds. The symbolic function must always precede its object and does not encounter reality except when it precedes it into the imaginary.
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