I suffered evils, but without allowing them to rob me of the freedom to expand.
Gordon ParksRead
Nothing came easy. I was just born with a need to explore every part of my mind. And with long searching and hard work, I became devoted to my restlessness.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the value of hard work and the pursuit of personal exploration despite challenges.
Gordon Parks reflects on his journey of personal growth, highlighting that nothing of value comes effortlessly. His innate drive to explore his thoughts and creativity required dedication and perseverance, ultimately leading him to a deep commitment to understanding himself and the world around him through continuous effort and introspection.
In practice
In a motivational speech to college students about pursuing their passions.
I suffered evils, but without allowing them to rob me of the freedom to expand.
You know, the camera is not meant just to show misery.
If you don't have anything to say, your photographs aren't going to say much.
The camera could be a very powerful instrument against discrimination, against poverty, against racism.
And I think that after nearly 85 years upon this planet that I have a right after working so hard at showing the desolation and the poverty, to show something beautiful for somebody as well.
I saw that the camera could be a weapon against poverty, against racism, against all sorts of social wrongs. I knew at that point I had to have a camera.
Is it more probable that nature should go out of her course, or that a man should tell a lie? We have never seen, in our time, nature go out of her course; but we have good reason to believe that millions of lies have been told in the same time.
Why should she give her bounty to the dead? What is divinity if it can come Only in silent shadows and in dreams?
These sociologists who talk to facilely about the sacred are like a man who keeps a toothless old circus lion around the house in order to experience the thrills of the jungle.
The world of men is dreaming, it has gone mad in its sleep, and a snake is strangling it, but it can't wake up.
To die for an idea is to set a rather high price upon conjecture.
It is impossible to encircle the hips of a girl with my right arm and hold her smile in my left hand, then proceed to study the two items separately. Similarly, we can not separate life from living matter, in order to study only living matter and its reactions. Inevitably, studying living matter and its reactions, we study life itself
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