The challenge for a nonfiction writer is to achieve a poetic precision using the documents of truth but somehow to make people and places spring to life as if the reader was in their presence.
Simon SchamaRead
Charlie Hebdo: Satire was the father of true political freedom, born in the 18th century; the scourge of bigots and tyrants. Sing its praises.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Satire promotes freedom by challenging oppressive structures and beliefs.
This quote emphasizes the historical significance of satire as a powerful tool for political and social commentary, which emerged in the 18th century. It highlights how satire serves as a means to expose and ridicule the hypocrisy of tyrants and bigots, ultimately contributing to the advancement of true freedom and encouraging society to celebrate this form of expression.
Themes
SatireFreedomPoliticalBigotryTyranny
In practice
Example use cases
During a lecture on the importance of free speech, one might use this quote to illustrate the role of satire in democracy.
More from Simon Schama
All quotes βIn its Greek origins, historia meant inquiry, and from Thucydides onwards, the past has been studied to understand its connections with the present.
Simon SchamaRead
Jewish history turns out not to be an either/or story - as in, either pure Judaism detached from its surroundings or else assimilation - but rather, for the vast majority, the adventure of living in between.
Simon SchamaRead
I understood when I was quite small that there were two special things about the Jews. That we'd endured for over 3,000 years despite everything that had been thrown at us, and that we had an extraordinarily dramatic story to tell.
Simon SchamaRead
History is admirably dangerous. It is not the soft option. Teachers need to be grown up and brave. Sensitivity is fine, but it stops at the door of honest narrative.
Simon SchamaRead
History gives you insight of the same quality of truth as poetry or philosophy or a novel.
Simon SchamaRead
Similar quotes
To seek "causes" of poverty in this way is to enter an intellectual dead end because poverty has no causes. Only prosperity has causes.
Jane JacobsRead
You don't have to love animals to recognize that it is immoral and unjust to exploit them. But if you do love animals, but you continue to participate in their exploitation, you need to rethink your idea of what love means.
Gary L. FrancioneRead
He to whom many objects of pursuit arise at the same time, will frequently hesitate between different desires till a rival has precluded him, or change his course as new attractions prevail, and harass himself without advancing.
Samuel JohnsonRead
By a conscious effort of the mind we can stand aloof from actions and their consequences; and all things, good and bad, go by us like a torrent.
Henry David ThoreauRead
The mystic cords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the angels of our nature.
Abraham LincolnRead
Character, in the long run, is the decisive factor in the life of an individual and of nations alike.
Theodore RooseveltRead