The experienced writer says to the anguished novice: 'Just do it; get something, anything, on to the screen or page, just establish a flow of words, and criticise them later.' You give this advice but can't always take it.
Hilary MantelRead
For what's the point of breeding children, if each generation does not improve on what went before.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The value of raising children lies in the expectation that each generation will make progress and improve upon the past.
Hilary Mantel's quote emphasizes the importance of progress across generations. It suggests that the act of bringing children into the world should be driven by the aspiration that they will enhance society, culture, and the human experience, thereby creating a better future than what has already been established.
Themes
ProgressGenerationsChildrenImprovementFuture
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used during a graduation speech to inspire a new generation.
More from Hilary Mantel
All quotes βHistory is always changing behind us, and the past changes a little every time we retell it.
Hilary MantelRead
Why are we so attached to the severities of the past? Why are we so proud of having endured our fathers and our mothers, the fireless days and the meatless days, the cold winters and the sharp tongues? It's not as if we had a choice.
Hilary MantelRead
He is careful to deny responsibility for September, but he does not, you notice, condemn the killings. He also refrains from killing words, sparing Roland and Buzot, as if they were beneath his notice. August 10 was illegal, he says; so too was the taking of the Bastille. What account can we take of that, in revolution? It is the nature of revolutions to break laws. We are not justices of the peace; we are legislators to a new world.
Hilary MantelRead
It is the absence of facts that frightens people: the gap you open, into which they pour their fears, fantasies, desires.
Hilary MantelRead
History offers us vicarious experience. It allows the youngest student to possess the ground equally with his elders; without a knowledge of history to give him a context for present events, he is at the mercy of every social misdiagnosis handed to him.
Hilary MantelRead
Similar quotes
Who on earth invented the silly convention that it is boring or impolite to talk shop? Nothing is more interesting to listen to, especially if the shop is not one's own.
W. H. AudenRead
All power is inherent in the people.
Thomas JeffersonRead
Pain in the present is experienced as hurt. Pain in the past is remembered as anger. Pain in the future is perceived as anxiety. Unexpressed anger, redirected against yourself and held within, is called guilt. The depletion of energy that occurs when anger is redirected inward creates depression.
Deepak ChopraRead
I act because I can't seem to live with myself if I do not. I don't know any other way to be. It isn't something you can explain; it is just something that you do; it is something that you are.
Martin SheenRead
One of the great ironies of our time is that some of the most progressive cities are among the most systemically racist in their housing policies.
Ritchie TorresRead
Walks. The body advances, while the mind flutters around it like a bird.
Jules RenardRead