. . . money . . . is really the difference between men and animals, most of the things men feel, animals feel, and vice versa, but animals do not know about money.
Gertrude SteinRead
You'll be old and you never lived, and you kind of feel silly to lie down and die and to never have lived, to have been a job chaser and never have lived.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of truly living and experiencing life rather than merely pursuing work or material success.
Gertrude Stein's quote reflects on the idea that many people go through life focusing solely on their careers and obligations, which can lead to a hollow existence. She warns against the regret of reaching old age only to realize that one has not truly lived or embraced the richness of life's experiences, suggesting that a life spent only chasing jobs may ultimately feel unfulfilling and silly.
Themes
LifeExperiencesRegretFulfillmentExistence
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a motivational speech about pursuing one's dreams and passions.
More from Gertrude Stein
All quotes →The creator of the new composition in the arts is an outlaw until he is a classic.
Gertrude SteinRead
If the communication is perfect, the words have life, and that is all there is to good writing, putting down on the paper words which dance and weep and make love and fight and kiss and perform miracles.
Gertrude SteinRead
The United States is just now the oldest country in the world, there always is an oldest country and she is it, it is she who is the mother of the twentieth century civilization. She began to feel herself as it just after the Civil War. And so it is a country the right age to have been born in and the wrong age to live in.
Gertrude SteinRead
I simply contend that the middle-class ideal which demands that people be affectionate, respectable, honest and content, that they avoid excitements and cultivate serenity is the ideal that appeals to me, it is in short the ideal of affectionate family life, of honorable business methods.
Gertrude SteinRead
It is natural to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes to that siren until she allures us to our death.
Gertrude SteinRead
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