. . . 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
It is always a mistake to be plain-spoken.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Being straightforward can often lead to misunderstandings or negative reactions.
Gertrude Stein's quote suggests that being too direct or honest in communication may not always be advisable, as it can provoke unwelcome responses or create discomfort. This observation points to the nuance involved in human interactions, where the way something is said may be just as important as the content of the message.
Themes
CommunicationHonestyMisunderstandingNuanceDirectness
In practice
Example use cases
During a meeting, one may want to choose their words carefully instead of being too blunt to avoid conflict.
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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