My mother is a great artist, but she always treated her paintings like minor postcards. Had she pursued it, she would have been a great artist. Instead, she looked down on her art.
Isabel AllendeRead
I don't think the world will destroy itself in a nuclear cataclysm. On the contrary, we have the capacity to save ourselves and save the planet, and we will use it.
Interpretation
The quote expresses optimism about humanity's ability to rectify its mistakes and protect the planet from destruction.
Isabel Allende conveys a hopeful perspective on the future, rejecting the notion of inevitable self-destruction through nuclear warfare. Instead, she emphasizes human resilience and the intrinsic potential we possess to both save ourselves and preserve the Earth, suggesting that collective action and awareness can lead to positive outcomes.
In practice
During a climate change conference to inspire collective action among leaders.
My mother is a great artist, but she always treated her paintings like minor postcards. Had she pursued it, she would have been a great artist. Instead, she looked down on her art.
I never try to convey a message, I just want to tell a story. Why that story in particular? I have no idea, but I have learned to surrender to the muse. I become obsessed with a theme or with certain stories; they haunt me for years, and finally, I write them.
My life is about ups and downs, great joys and great losses.
I'm interested in people who have to overcome obstacles, people who are not sheltered by the umbrella of the establishment, marginals.
I'm a writer. In Latin America, they say I'm a Latin-American writer because I also write in Spanish and my books are translated, but I am an American citizen and my books are published here, so I'm also an American writer.
All summer, I read fiction because you must read for the pleasure and beauty of it, and not only for research. I don't read thrillers, romance or mystery, and I don't read self-help books because I don't believe in shortcuts and loopholes.
Women must be freed from the idea that they always have to stay young and that they must disfigure themselves at a certain age.
Lord, let me find my life in thee, and not in the mire of this world's favour or gain.
Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one's own beliefs. Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others.
When I was in Holland, the idea was, all cultures are equal and all are to be preserved. My idea was, no, all humans are equal, but not all cultures are equal.
It is precisely women’s experience of God that this world lacks. A world that does not nurture its weakest, does not know God the birthing mother. A world that does not preserve the planet, does not know God the creator. A world that does not honor the spirit of compassion, does not know God the spirit. God the lawgiver, God the judge, God the omnipotent being have consumed Western spirituality and, in the end, shriveled its heart.
Logic is a poor guide compared with custom.
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