We must never expect discretion in first love: it is accompanied by such excessive joy that unless the joy is allowed to overflow, it will choke you.
Alexandre DumasRead
Yet man will never be perfect until he learns to create and destroy; he does know how to destroy, and that is half the battle.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Humans must learn both to create and to destroy to achieve perfection.
In this quote, Alexandre Dumas suggests that the path to human perfection involves a dual understanding of creation and destruction. While humanity has already mastered the act of destruction, true progress and advancement require the ability to create as well. This balance is essential not only for personal growth but also for the evolution of society as a whole.
Themes
CreationDestructionPerfectionHumanityProgress
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about innovation, one could use this quote to emphasize the importance of both creative and destructive forces in technology.
More from Alexandre Dumas
All quotes βThere are two ways of seeing: with the body and with the soul. The body's sight can sometimes forget, but the soul remembers forever.
Alexandre DumasRead
I do not often laugh, sir, as you may perceive by the air of my countenance; but nevertheless, I retain the privilege of laughing when I please.
Alexandre DumasRead
There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness.
Alexandre DumasRead
Those born to wealth, and who have the means of gratifying every wish, know not what is the real happiness of life, just as those who have been tossed on the stormy waters of the ocean on a few frail planks can alone realize the blessings of fair weather.
Alexandre DumasRead
It is the way of weakened minds to see everything through a black cloud. The soul forms its own horizons; your soul is darkened, and consequently the sky of the future appears stormy and unpromising
Alexandre DumasRead
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I have spent all my life under a Communist regime, and I will tell you that a society without any objective legal scale is a terrible one indeed. But a society with no other scale but the legal one is not quite worthy of man either.
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