Certainly my inner world will never be a peaceful place of bloom; it will have some peace, and occasional riots of bloom, but always a little fight going on too. There is no way I can be peacefully happy in this society and in this skin. I am committed to Uneasy Street. I like it; it is my idea that this street leads to the future, and that I am being true to a way of life which is not here yet, but is more real than what is here.
Interpretation
The quote reflects the internal struggle of finding peace and happiness in a complex society.
James Tiptree Jr. presents an introspective view on the nature of happiness and struggle within oneself and society. The metaphor of 'Uneasy Street' signifies a path filled with conflicts and challenges, but also the potential for growth and authenticity. Despite the complexities, the speaker finds value in embracing the turmoil as a means of staying true to a visionary future that transcends the current reality. This suggests that true contentment may lie not in the absence of conflict, but in the genuine pursuit of one’s beliefs and aspirations.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about personal growth and embracing life's challenges.
I have an intellectual inclination for democratic institutions, but I am instinctively an aristocrat, which means that I despise and fear the masses. I passionately love liberty, legality, the respect for rights, but not democracy....liberty is my foremost passion. That is the truth.
There is nothing more corrupting, nothing more destructive of the noblest and finest feelings of our nature, than the exercise of unlimited power.
The 'free-floating intellectual' may occupy himself with problems because of their inherent interest and importance, perhaps to little effect.
A great safeguard is the entire faith, the true faith, in which neither anything whatever can be added by anyone nor anything taken away; for, unless faith be one, it is not the faith.
When I was five, I am told, and asked what my favorite things in the world were, I answered, smoked salmon and Bach.
All of history misses out on the history of the soul. Human passions are so often not included in history.
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