The experienced writer says to the anguished novice: 'Just do it; get something, anything, on to the screen or page, just establish a flow of words, and criticise them later.' You give this advice but can't always take it.
Hilary MantelRead
It is better not to try people, not to force them to desperation. Make them prosper; out of superfluidity, they will be generous. Full bellies breed gentle manners. The pinch of famine makes monsters.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the importance of kindness and understanding in human interactions, suggesting that prosperity leads to generosity while desperation breeds cruelty.
Hilary Mantel's quote reflects on human nature and the social conditions that influence behavior. It argues that when people are prosperous and their basic needs are met, they are more likely to exhibit kindness and generosity. In contrast, when individuals are pushed to their limits due to hardship or desperation, their behaviors become more aggressive and monstrous. This underscores the idea that kindness should be cultivated in society, as it fosters goodwill and harmonious relationships among people.
Themes
KindnessGenerosityPovertyHuman NatureProsperityCompassion
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about community service, one might say, 'As Hilary Mantel wisely noted, it is better not to try people in times of need; instead, we should uplift them to foster generosity.'
More from Hilary Mantel
All quotes →History is always changing behind us, and the past changes a little every time we retell it.
Hilary MantelRead
Why are we so attached to the severities of the past? Why are we so proud of having endured our fathers and our mothers, the fireless days and the meatless days, the cold winters and the sharp tongues? It's not as if we had a choice.
Hilary MantelRead
He is careful to deny responsibility for September, but he does not, you notice, condemn the killings. He also refrains from killing words, sparing Roland and Buzot, as if they were beneath his notice. August 10 was illegal, he says; so too was the taking of the Bastille. What account can we take of that, in revolution? It is the nature of revolutions to break laws. We are not justices of the peace; we are legislators to a new world.
Hilary MantelRead
It is the absence of facts that frightens people: the gap you open, into which they pour their fears, fantasies, desires.
Hilary MantelRead
History offers us vicarious experience. It allows the youngest student to possess the ground equally with his elders; without a knowledge of history to give him a context for present events, he is at the mercy of every social misdiagnosis handed to him.
Hilary MantelRead
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