It would be a bitter cosmic joke if we destroy ourselves due to atrophy of the imagination.
Martha GellhornRead
Gradually I came to realize that people will more readily swallow lies than truth, as if the taste of lies was homey, appetizing: a habit.
Interpretation
What this quote means
People often prefer comforting lies over harsh truths.
This quote encapsulates the tendency of individuals to accept falsehoods because they are more palatable than the sometimes uncomfortable reality of truth. It suggests that lies can become habitual, providing a false sense of comfort, while truth may be more challenging to confront.
Themes
TruthLiesComfortHabitReality
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about honesty in relationships, this quote highlights the importance of facing the truth even when it's difficult.
More from Martha Gellhorn
All quotes βthe ends never justify the means because IT never ends.
Martha GellhornRead
Citizenship is a tough occupation which obliges the citizen to make his own informed opinion and stand by it.
Martha GellhornRead
I followed the war wherever I could reach it.
Martha GellhornRead
Thousand got away to other countries; thousands returned to Spain tempted by false promises of kindness. By the tens of thousands, these Spaniards died of neglect in the concentration camps.
Martha GellhornRead
By its existence, the Peace Movement denies that governments know best; it stands for a different order of priorities: the human race comes first.
Martha GellhornRead
Similar quotes
If you want to be wrong then follow the masses.
SocratesRead
Receive what cheer you may. The night is long that never finds the day.
William ShakespeareRead
Grown-ups never understand anything for themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.
Antoine De Saint-ExuperyRead
Everything hangs on one's thinking.
Seneca The YoungerRead
Men say they only learn this but he said that no creature can learn that which his heart has no shape to hold.
Cormac MccarthyRead
When the mind withdraws into itself and dispenses with facts it makes only chaos.
Edith HamiltonRead