We had yet to learn that the Devil created youth so that we could make our mistakes, and that God established maturity and old age so that we could pay for them.
Carlos Ruiz ZafonRead
The haunting of history is ever present in Barcelona. I see cities as organisms, as living creatures. To me, Madrid is a man and Barcelona is a woman. And it's a woman who's extremely vain.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the character of cities and their historical essence, comparing Madrid and Barcelona through gendered metaphors.
Carlos Ruiz Zafon personifies cities, suggesting that they possess distinct identities shaped by their history. By likening Madrid to a man and Barcelona to a vain woman, he implies that cities, much like people, have unique personalities and traits influenced by their past experiences and cultural evolution.
In practice
In a discussion about urban development, this quote illustrates the deep character cities hold.
We had yet to learn that the Devil created youth so that we could make our mistakes, and that God established maturity and old age so that we could pay for them.
I think today will be the day. Today our luck will change,' I proclaimed on the wings of the first coffee of the day, pure optimism in a liquid state.
We spend a good part of our lives dreaming, especially when we're awake.
Destiny is usually just around the corner. Like a thief, a hooker, or a lottery vendor: its three most common personifications. But what destiny does not do is home visits. You have to go for it.
Destiny doesn't do home visits... you have to go for it yourself.
All interpretation or observation of reality is necessarily fiction. In this case, the problem is that man is a moral animal abandoned in an amoral universe and condemned to a finite existence with no other purpose than to perpetuate the natural cycle of the species. It is impossible to survive in a prolonged state of reality, at least for a human being. We spend a good part of our lives dreaming, especially when we're awake.
I will make a Star-chamber matter of it.
Losing your way on a journey is unfortunate. But, losing your reason for the journey is a fate more cruel.
A hundred suspicions don't make a proof.
Spiritual people don't float around all day on clouds of glory; they live in the real world and deal with real issues in real ways.
I'm trying to knock the medical profession into accepting its responsibilities, and those responsibilities include assisting their patients with death.
The test of a democracy is not the magnificence of buildings or the speed of automobiles or the efficiency of air transportation, but rather the care given to the welfare of all the people.
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