QuoteProject
Who made the world I cannot tell; 'Tis made, and here am I in hell. My hand, though now my knuckles bleed, I never soiled with such a deed.
A. E. Housman
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote reflects on the creator of the world and the inherent suffering of existence, highlighting a struggle against wrongdoing.

A. E. Housman's quote contemplates the mystery of existence and creation, expressing a sense of despair and conflict. The speaker acknowledges the suffering in their life, indicated by the imagery of bleeding knuckles, while maintaining a moral stance against wrongdoing. This duality of pain and integrity illustrates the internal struggle faced by individuals in a complex world where the reasons for their suffering are inexplicable and often unrelated to their own actions.

Themes

SufferingExistenceMoralityStruggleCreation

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be used in a philosophical discussion about the nature of suffering and existence.

More from A. E. Housman

There, by the starlit fences The wanderer halts and hears My soul that lingers sighing About the glimmering weirs.
A. E. HousmanRead
I am not a pessimist but a pejorist (as George Eliot said she was not an optimist but a meliorist); and that philosophy is founded on my observation of the world, not on anything so trivial and irrelevant as personal history.
A. E. HousmanRead
Lovers lying two and two Ask not whom they sleep beside, And the bridegroom all night through Never turns him to the bride.
A. E. HousmanRead
And malt does more than Milton can to justify God's ways to man.
A. E. HousmanRead
Oh, 'tis jesting, dancing, drinking_x000D_ _x000D_ Spins the heavy world around.
A. E. HousmanRead
Wanderers eastward, wanderers west, Know you why you cannot rest? 'Tis that every mother's son Travails with a skeleton. Lie down in the bed of dust; Bear the fruit that bear you must; Bring the eternal seed to light, And morn is all the same as night.
A. E. HousmanRead

Similar quotes

Race doesn't really exist for you because it has never been a barrier. Black folks don't have that choice.
Chimamanda Ngozi AdichieRead
It can be argued that rapists deserve to be raped, that mutilators deserve to be mutilated. Most societies, however, refrain from responding in this way because the punishment is not only degrading to those on whom it is imposed, but it is also degrading to the society that engages in the same behavior as the criminals.
Stephen BrightRead
If there is no free speech, every single life has lived in vain
Ai WeiweiRead
Life without pain has no meaning.
Arthur SchopenhauerRead
The individual is not accountable to society for his actions in so far as these concern the interests of no person but himself.
John Stuart MillRead
As soon as man does not take his existence for granted, but beholds it as something unfathomably mysterious, thought begins.
Albert SchweitzerRead

A little wisdom, now and then

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