When I learnt to write I became my own master, I became very strong, and that strength is with me to this very day.
V. S. NaipaulRead
It's very attractive to people to be a victim. Instead of having to think out the whole situation, about history and your group and what you are doing... if you begin from the point of view of being a victim, you've got it half-made. I mean intellectually.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that adopting a victim mentality can be simpler than critically analyzing one's circumstances.
V. S. Naipaul highlights the allure of the victim mentality, proposing that it can be more appealing to some people than engaging in complex, critical thinking about their situation, history, and responsibilities. By perceiving oneself as a victim, one can evade the challenges of analytical thought and responsibility, which can lead to a more simplistic, yet intellectually lazy, approach to understanding one's life and actions.
In practice
In a discussion about personal responsibility, this quote could emphasize the danger of adopting a victim mentality.
When I learnt to write I became my own master, I became very strong, and that strength is with me to this very day.
It is wrong to have an ideal view of the world. That's where the mischief starts. That's where everything starts unravelling.
If you decide to move to another country and to live within its laws you don't express your disregard for the essence of the culture. It's a form of aggression.
One must always try to see the truth of a situation - it makes things universal.
His ignorance seemed to widen with everything he read.
I think when you see so many Hindu temples of the 10th century or earlier disfigured, defaced, you realise that something terrible happened. I feel the civilisation of that closed world was mortally wounded by those invasions the old world is destroyed. That has to be understood. Ancient Hindu India was destroyed.
I don't go by my caste, creed or religion. My works speak for me.
In all of us there is a hunger, marrow-deep, to know our heritage, to know who we are and where we came from.
When his highness sends a ship to Egypt, does he trouble his head whether the mice on board are at their ease or not?
The ability to make judgments lies at the heart of Christian living. Unless we are able to judge doctrine, lifestyles, and entertainment, unless we are able to distinguish between outer appearance and inner character, we just might miss the purpose for which God placed us on this earth. We might end up accepting a stone for bread and a snake for a fish.
There's no reason to assume that my idea of what's better would really be better. I resent it when other people try to inflict their ideas of betterness on me. I don't think they know. And I can't see any authority on the horizon that's got any answers that seem worthwhile. Most of the things that are suggested are probably detrimental to your mental health.
The Devil has the broadest perspectives for God; therefore, he keeps so far away from God -- the Devil being the most ancient friend of wisdom
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