People always clap for the wrong reasons.
J. D. SalingerRead
Language also encodes our past. We want to know who we are. To know who we are, we have to know who we used to be. Consequently, our literature, written in the past, anchors us in that past.
Interpretation
Language and literature connect us to our history and identity.
This quote emphasizes the significance of language and literature as vessels of historical knowledge and personal identity. To understand ourselves fully, we must explore our past, as our stories and the words we use shape our perception of who we are today. The connection to our history through literature anchors us, allowing us to better navigate our present and future.
In practice
This quote could be used in a speech about the importance of preserving cultural literature.
People always clap for the wrong reasons.
One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that ' an unjust law is no law at all.
If people knew the story of their lives, how many would then elect to live them?
No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.
Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but, as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups are more immoral than individuals.
It is arguable that the success of business propaganda in persuading us, for so long, that we are free from propaganda is one of the most significant propaganda achievements of the twentieth century.
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