She always imagined that evil played out on a large canvas- wars, concentration camps, gas chambers, the partitioning of nations. Now she realized that evil had a domestic side, and its very banality protected it from exposure.
Interpretation
Evil exists not only in grand acts but also in everyday situations, often unnoticed.
This quote highlights the often-overlooked presence of evil in mundane, everyday life, contrasting it with the more overt manifestations such as war and genocide. It suggests that the ordinary nature of this domestic evil can make it more insidious, as it goes unrecognized and unchallenged, thereby perpetuating its existence and impact on society.
In practice
During a discussion on moral philosophy, to emphasize the subtle nature of evil in daily life.
What she had believed was indignation or rage or a deep intolerance for injustice came down to this: she was irreducibly in love with this bewitching planet, this thrilling life, this heartbreaking species she belonged to, with its capacity for stupefying destruction and breathtaking magnanimity.
One of the great dangers on the spiritual path is that the ego becomes spiritualized. The ego loves to think of itself as spiritually evolved. It is just another way that it manages to feel important and in control. It is very difficult to free yourself from an enlightened ego.
In my stillness I am the eternal possibility. In my movement I am the cosmos.
It was a drowsy summer afternoon, and the Forest was full of gentle sounds, which all seemed to be saying to Pooh, 'Don't listen to Rabbit, listen to me.' So he got in a comfortable position for not listening to Rabbit.
You may be sure that when a man begins to call himself a realist he is preparing to do something that he is secretly ashamed of doing.
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
The individual's desire to dominate his environment is not a desirable trait in a society which every day grows more and more confining.
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