Or about how when you're a child, to stop you from following the crowd you're assaulted with the line "If everyone jumped off a bridge, would you?" but when you're an adult and to be different is suddenly a crime, people seem to be saying, "Hey. Everyone else is jumping off a bridge. Why aren't you?
Interpretation
The quote critiques the contradictory societal pressures regarding conformity and individuality across different life stages.
In this thought-provoking quote, Steve Toltz highlights the irony of how societal expectations shift from discouraging conformity in childhood to promoting it in adulthood. The metaphor of jumping off a bridge serves to illustrate the inherent tension between the desire to fit in and the value of standing out, ultimately questioning the standards by which we navigate social behavior.
In practice
During a speech about innovation in the workplace, one could say this quote to inspire employees to think outside the box.
It is quite rare for God to provide a great man at the necessary moment to carry out some great deep, which is why when this unusual combination of circumstance does occur, history at once records the name of the chosen one and recommends him to the admiration of posterity.
We can come to look upon the deaths of our enemies with as much regret as we feel for those of our friends, namely, when we miss their existence as witnesses to our success.
That was what gospel was meant to do - make you hate and love yourself at the same time, make you ashamed and glorified.
To put it in plain language, Russia is that country where the name of a writer appears not on the cover of his book, but on the door of his prison cell.
Woe, destruction, ruin, and decay; the worst is death and death will have his day.
I am the harvest of man's stupidity. I am the fruit of the holocaust. I prayed like you to survive, but look at me now. It is over for us who are dead, but you must struggle, and will carry the memories all your life. People back home will wonder why you can't forget.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.