A young man is afraid of his demon and puts his hand over the demon's mouth sometimes and speaks for him. And the things the young man says are very rarely poetry.
D. H. LawrenceRead
God how I hate new countries: They are older than the old, more sophisticated, much more conceited, only young in a certain puerile vanity more like senility than anything.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote expresses disdain for new countries, suggesting they embody an arrogance and superficial youthfulness that belies their deeper complexities.
D. H. Lawrence's quote reflects a critical view of new countries, positing that while they may seem youthful, they possess an ingrained arrogance and sophistication that makes them more complex and, in some ways, more insidious than older nations. This commentary suggests that the perceived freshness of new nations often masks a deeper, more troubling essence, akin to the paradox of youthful pride resembling senility rather than genuine vigor.
Themes
New CountriesVanityArroganceSophisticationSenility
In practice
Example use cases
During a lecture on the socio-political complexities of emerging nations, one might quote Lawrence to illustrate the paradox of perceived youth versus actual maturity.
More from D. H. Lawrence
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... he preferred his own madness, to the regular sanity. He rejoiced in his own madness, he was free. He did not want that old sanity of the world, which was become so repulsive. He rejoiced in the new-found world of his madness. It was so fresh and delicate and so satisfying.
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When the emotional soul receives a wounding shock, the soul seems to recover as the body recovers. But this is only in appearance. Slowly, slowly the wound to the soul begins to make itself felt, like a bruise, which only slowly deepens its terrible ache, till it fills all the psyche. And when we think we have recovered and forgotten, it is then that the terrible after-effects have to be encountered at their worst.
D. H. LawrenceRead
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