. . . money . . . is really the difference between men and animals, most of the things men feel, animals feel, and vice versa, but animals do not know about money.
Gertrude SteinRead
Counting is the religion of this generation it is its hope and its salvation.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that the act of counting, or measuring success and progress, has become a foundational belief for this generation, serving as both hope and a solution.
Gertrude Stein's statement reflects on how contemporary society places immense value on quantifying experiences, achievements, and worth. In an era dominated by data, metrics, and analytics, counting emerges as a means of understanding and navigating the complexities of life, providing individuals with a sense of hope and perceived safety in the structured framework it offers.
Themes
CountingGenerationHopeSalvationReligionMeasurement
In practice
Example use cases
In a presentation about modern society, one might quote Stein to discuss our reliance on data.
More from Gertrude Stein
All quotes βThe creator of the new composition in the arts is an outlaw until he is a classic.
Gertrude SteinRead
If the communication is perfect, the words have life, and that is all there is to good writing, putting down on the paper words which dance and weep and make love and fight and kiss and perform miracles.
Gertrude SteinRead
The United States is just now the oldest country in the world, there always is an oldest country and she is it, it is she who is the mother of the twentieth century civilization. She began to feel herself as it just after the Civil War. And so it is a country the right age to have been born in and the wrong age to live in.
Gertrude SteinRead
I simply contend that the middle-class ideal which demands that people be affectionate, respectable, honest and content, that they avoid excitements and cultivate serenity is the ideal that appeals to me, it is in short the ideal of affectionate family life, of honorable business methods.
Gertrude SteinRead
It is natural to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes to that siren until she allures us to our death.
Gertrude SteinRead
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