QuoteProject
They don't ask much of you. They only want you to hate the things you love and to love the things you despise.
Boris Pasternak
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote reflects the conflicting nature of societal expectations regarding love and hate.

Boris Pasternak's quote highlights the paradoxical demands often placed upon individuals by society, urging them to reject their genuine affections and embrace what they typically detest. This struggle between personal feelings and external pressures can lead to inner turmoil, as people grapple with the expectations of fitting into societal norms instead of remaining true to themselves.

Themes

SocietyConflictLoveHateExpectations

In practice

Example use cases

This quote would be relevant in a discussion on societal pressures during a philosophy class.

More from Boris Pasternak

Even so, one step from my grave, I believe that cruelty, spite, The powers of darkness will in time, Be crushed by the spirit of light.
Boris PasternakRead
He is her glory. Any woman could say it. For every one of them, God is in her child. Mothers of great men must have been familiar with this feeling, but then, all women are mothers of great men -- it isn't their fault if life disappoints them later.
Boris PasternakRead
Our evenings are farewells. Our parties are testaments. So that the secret stream of suffering. May warm the cold of life.
Boris PasternakRead
The most extraordinary discoveries are made when the artist is overwhelmed by what he has to say.
Boris PasternakRead
Oh, how one wishes sometimes to escape from the meaningless dullness of human eloquence, from all those sublime phrases, to take refuge in nature, apparently so inarticulate, or in the wordlessness of long, grinding labor, of sound sleep, of true music, or of a human understanding rendered speechless by emotion!
Boris PasternakRead
They loved each other, not driven by necessity, by the "blaze of passion" often falsely ascribed to love. They loved each other because everything around them willed it, the trees and the clouds and the sky over their heads and the earth under their feet.
Boris PasternakRead

Similar quotes

Perhaps that is part of the animals' role among us, to awaken humility, to turn our minds back to the mystery of things, and open our hearts to that most impractical of hopes in which all creation speaks as one.
Matthew ScullyRead
I was not looking now at an unusual flower arrangement. I was seeing what Adam had seen on the morning of his creation - the miracle, moment by moment, of naked existence.
Aldous HuxleyRead
The earth is enjoyed by heroes
Swami VivekanandaRead
Of all writings I love only that which is written with blood. Write with blood: and you will discover that blood is spirit.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
Anyone who knows me, should learn to know me again; For I am like the Moon, you will see me with new face everyday.
RumiRead
Our object in the construction of the state is the greatest happiness of the whole, and not that of any one class.
PlatoRead

A little wisdom, now and then

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