QuoteProject
When you're at war, you think about a better life; when you're at peace you think about a more comfortable one.
Thornton Wilder
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote suggests that hardship inspires thoughts of improvement, while ease leads to complacency.

Thornton Wilder's quote reflects on the human mindset during different states of existence. When faced with struggle or adversity, individuals are often motivated to seek a better life, pushing them towards change and improvement. In contrast, during peaceful and comfortable times, there is a tendency to become more focused on maintaining that comfort rather than aspiring for growth. This serves as a reminder of the impact of our circumstances on our aspirations and desires.

Themes

WarPeaceLifeComfortAspirationAdversity

In practice

Example use cases

During a speech on personal growth, one could use this quote to highlight the importance of striving for improvement during difficult times.

More from Thornton Wilder

The comic spirit is given to us in order that we may analyze, weigh, and clarify things in us which nettle us, or which we are outgrowing, or trying to reshape
Thornton WilderRead
A man looks pretty small at a wedding, George. All those good women standing shoulder to shoulder, making sure that the knot's tied in a mighty public way.
Thornton WilderRead
Good-by, Good-by, world. Good-by, Grover's Corners... Mama and Papa. Good-by to clocks ticking... and Mama's sunflowers. And food and coffee. And new-ironed dresses and hot baths...and sleeping and waking up. Oh, earth, you're too wonderful for anybody to realize you.
Thornton WilderRead
When you're safe at home you wish you were having an adventure; when you're having an adventure you wish you were safe at home.
Thornton WilderRead
Many great writers have been extraordinarily awkward in daily exchange, but the greatest give the impression that their style was nursed by the closest attention to colloquial speech.
Thornton WilderRead
I want you to try and remember what it was like to have been very young. And particularly the days when you were first in love; when you were like a person sleepwalking, and you didn’t quite see the street you were in, and didn’t quite hear everything that was said to you. You’re just a little bit crazy. Will you remember that, please?
Thornton WilderRead

Similar quotes

The more he identifies with the dominant images of need, the less he understands his own life and his own desires. The spectacle’s estrangement from the acting subject is expressed by the fact that the individual’s gestures are no longer his own; they are the gestures of someone else who represents them to him.
Guy DebordRead
Some men, at the approach of a dispute, neigh like horses.
Ralph Waldo EmersonRead
If you do anything out of the ordinary, you can be sure someone, somewhere, will get upset.
Haruki MurakamiRead
So, to say Barack Obama is progress is saying that he's the first black person that is qualified to be president. That's not black progress. That's white progress.
Chris RockRead
For every nation that lives peaceably, there will be many others to grow hard and push their arrogance to extremes; the gods attend to these things slowly. But they attend to those who put off God and turn to madness.
SophoclesRead
Optimists and pessimists die the exact same death, but they live very different lives!
Shimon PeresRead

A little wisdom, now and then

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