Gradually I came to realize that people will more readily swallow lies than truth, as if the taste of lies was homey, appetizing: a habit.
It would be a bitter cosmic joke if we destroy ourselves due to atrophy of the imagination.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote warns against losing our creativity and imagination, suggesting that our failure to innovate may lead to our downfall.
Martha Gellhorn's quote reflects a profound concern about the human condition, emphasizing that the decline of our imaginative capabilities can lead us to self-destruction. It suggests that without creativity and the ability to envision alternative futures, humanity may fall into complacency or despair, ultimately causing its own demise. This statement serves as a reminder of the importance of nurturing our imagination and striving for innovative solutions as a safeguard against societal decline.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be shared during a discussion on the importance of creativity in education.
More from Martha Gellhorn
All quotes βthe ends never justify the means because IT never ends.
Citizenship is a tough occupation which obliges the citizen to make his own informed opinion and stand by it.
I followed the war wherever I could reach it.
Thousand got away to other countries; thousands returned to Spain tempted by false promises of kindness. By the tens of thousands, these Spaniards died of neglect in the concentration camps.
By its existence, the Peace Movement denies that governments know best; it stands for a different order of priorities: the human race comes first.
Similar quotes
It's not speech per se that allows democracies to function, but the ability to agree - eventually, at least some of the time - on what is true, what is important and what serves the public good. This doesn't mean everyone must agree on every fact, or that our priorities are necessarily uniform.
We have to state, without mincing words, that there is an inseparable bond between our faith and the poor. May we never abandon them.
Man is the only creature disposed to kill huge numbers of members of his own species, and his instrument is usually the state.
The individual is defined only by his relationship to the world and to other individuals; he exists only by transcending himself, and his freedom can be achieved only through the freedom of others. He justifies his existence by a movement which, like freedom, springs from his heart but which leads outside of himself.
You see, there's the way things seemed and then there's the way things were and one is so often the total reverse of the other.
When you do not name a group of people, you are compelled to look at each individual face and not treat them all as the mass.