I discovered when we suffer, we suffer as equals. And in their capacity to suffer, a dog is a pig, is a bear...is a boy.
Philip WollenRead
We obey people we don't trust, to buy things we don't need, to impress people we don't like, using money we don't have, for gratifications that don't last, killing animals we don't hate, for pleasures that don't satisfy, dreaming of a life we don't deserve, and praying for an afterlife that doesn't exist, we are a stupid species
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote criticizes society's tendencies towards materialism and self-deception.
Philip Wollen's quote provocatively highlights the absurdities of modern human behavior, pointing out how individuals often comply with societal expectations, leading to purchases and actions that do not align with their authentic selves. This commentary reflects on the human condition, questioning values that prioritize superficial approval over genuine relationship and fulfillment.
Themes
MaterialismSocietyAuthenticitySelf-DeceptionConsumerism
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about consumer culture, one might use this quote to illustrate the pitfalls of materialism.
More from Philip Wollen
All quotes →When I travel around the world, I see that poor countries sell their grain to the West while their own children starve in their arms. And we feed it to livestock. So we can eat a steak? Am I the only one who sees this as a crime? Every morsel of meat we eat is slapping the tear-stained face of a starving child. When I look into her eyes, should I be silent? The Earth can produce enough for everyone’s need. But not enough for everyone’s greed.
Philip WollenRead
We torture and kill two billion sentient living beings every week. 10,000 entire species are wiped out every year because of the actions of one, and we are now facing the sixth mass extinction in cosmological history. If any other organism did this, a biologist would consider them a virus.
Philip WollenRead
In their capacity to feel pain and fear, a pig is a dog is a bear is a boy.
Philip WollenRead
Similar quotes
Before this moment I'd lived as a mind. Body, heart, soul, intellect, so we care ourselves into parts. But the whole of us, what can it be?
Denis JohnsonRead
The dogma of woman's complete historical subjection to men must be rated as one of the most fantastic myths ever created by the human mind.
Mary Ritter BeardRead
History teaches, perhaps, very few clear lessons. But surely one such lesson learned by the world at great cost is that aggression, unopposed, becomes a contagious disease.
Jimmy CarterRead
What is reprehensible is that while leading good lives themselves and abhorring those of wicked men, some, fearing to offend, shut their eyes to evil deeds instead of condemning them and pointing out their malice.
Saint AugustineRead
It is myself I have never met whose face is pasted on the underside of my mind
Sarah KaneRead
Oh, gentlemen, perhaps I really regard myself as an intelligent man only because throughout my entire life I've never been able to start or finish anything. Granted, granted I'm a babbler, a harmless, irksome babbler, as we all are. But what's to be done if the sole and express purpose of every intelligent man is babble--that is, a deliberate pouring from empty into void.
Fyodor DostoevskyRead