I wanted to wear her as you would a piece of clothing, to fold into her ribs, be a stone in her mouth.
Dreams have consequences. There is no turning back. A revolution is not a painless march to the gates of freedom and justice. It is a struggle between rage and hope, between the temptation to destroy and the desire to build. Its temperament is desperate. It is a tormented response to the past, to all that has happened, the recalled and unrecalled injustices - for the memory of a revolution reaches much further back than the memory of its protagonists.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Dreams and revolutions come with challenges and consequences, reflecting a profound struggle for justice and freedom.
Hisham Matar's quote delves into the complex nature of revolutions, suggesting that the pursuit of freedom and justice is fraught with tension and emotional turmoil. It highlights the duality of revolution as both a response to past injustices and a struggle between destruction and creation, emphasizing that the fight for change is not only a public movement but also a deeply personal and historical experience that resonates through time.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used during a rally for social justice to inspire participants about the importance of their fight.
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The Nation has not yet found peace from its sins; the freedman has not yet found in freedom his promised land. Whatever of good may have come in these years of change, the shadow of a deep disappointment rests upon the Negro people,—a disappointment all the more bitter because the unattained ideal was unbounded save by the simple ignorance of a lowly people.
One thing the gay rights movement taught the world is the importance of being visible.
Things are always changing, so nothing can be yours.
Those who have wrought great changes in the world never succeeded by gaining over chiefs; but always by exciting the multitude. The first is the resource of intrigue and produces only secondary results, the second is the resort of genius and transforms the universe.
By changing the way you do routine things you allow a new man to grow inside you.
We have a planetary emergency. We have to find a way to create, in the generation of those alive today, a sense of generational mission.