I will rejoice the day when they say: This is right whether we all rot on top of each other or not, dear children, as we certainly may. Either practice restraint or be prepared for crowding.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the need for balance and restraint in society to avoid chaos and conflict.
Flannery O'Connor's quote examines the paradox of human existence and societal behavior, suggesting that the choices we make regarding restraint directly impact the quality of our communal life. By acknowledging the potential for crowding and the need for self-discipline, O'Connor emphasizes that our actions determine whether we live harmoniously or face inevitable chaos.
In practice
In a public speech about the importance of community, one might say, 'As Flannery O'Connor suggested, we must practice restraint or prepare for crowding.'
Let me make no bones about it: I write from the standpoint of Christian orthodoxy. Nothing is more repulsive to me than the idea of myself setting up a little universe of my own choosing and propounding a little immoralistic message. I write with a solid belief in all the Christian dogmas.
What people don’t realize is how much religion costs. They think faith is a big electric blanket, when of course it is the cross.
If you live today, you breath in nihilism ... it's the gas you breathe. If I hadn't had the Church to fight it with or to tell me the necessity of fighting it, I would be the stinkingest logical positivist you ever saw right now.
There won't be any biographies of me because, for only one reason, lives spent between the house and the chicken yard do not make exciting copy.
Knowing who you are is good for one generation only. You haven't the foggiest idea where you stand now or who you are
He loved her because it was his nature to do so, but there were times when he could not endure her love for him. There were times when it became nothing but pure idiot mystery.
We can be thankful to a friend for a few acres or a little money; and yet for the freedom and command of the whole earth, and for the great benefits of our being, our life, health, and reason, we look upon ourselves as under no obligation.
But, all this while, I was giving myself very unnecessary alarm. Providence had mediated better things for me than I could possibly imagine for myself.
The sin of fallen man is this: Man seeks the benefits of God while at the same time fleeing from God Himself.
To narrate is to give oneself: it seems obvious that literature, as an effort to communicate fully, will continue to be blocked so long as misery and illiteracy exist, and so long as the possessors of power continue to carry on with impunity their policy of collective imbecilization through the mass media.
It is the duty of the saints, especially in times of straights, to reflect upon the performances of Providence for them in all the states and through all the stages of their lives.
Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.