QuoteProject
If people would forget about utopia! When rationalism destroyed heaven and decided to set it up here on earth, that most terrible of all goals entered human ambition. It was clear there'd be no end to what people would be made to suffer for it.
Nadine Gordimer
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote critiques the pursuit of a perfect society, warning that it leads to suffering.

Nadine Gordimer's quote reflects a deep concern about the human ambition to create a utopia on earth through rationalism, which often results in significant suffering and loss. By arguing that striving for perfection can lead to disastrous consequences, Gordimer suggests that the desire for an ideal society often overshadows the values of compassion and understanding, ultimately leading to harm rather than fulfillment.

Themes

UtopiaRationalismSufferingAmbitionPerfection

In practice

Example use cases

In a speech about the dangers of idealism in politics, one could use this quote to emphasize the potential consequences of striving for a perfect society.

More from Nadine Gordimer

It's easier for the former masters to put aside the masks that hid their humanity than for the former slaves to recognise the faces underneath. Or to trust that this is not a new mask these are wearing.
Nadine GordimerRead
The gap between the committed and the indifferent is a Sahara whose faint trails, followed by the mind's eye only, fade out in sand.
Nadine GordimerRead
Perhaps the best definition of progress would be the continuing efforts of men and women to narrow the gap between the convenience of the powers that be and the unwritten charter.
Nadine GordimerRead
Art defies defeat by its very existence, representing the celebration of life, in spite of all attempts to degrade and destroy it.
Nadine GordimerRead
A truly living human being cannot remain neutral.
Nadine GordimerRead
The caged eagle become a metaphor for all forms of isolation, the ultimate in imprisonment. A zoo is prison.
Nadine GordimerRead

Similar quotes

It is possible that the contemplation of cruelty will not make us humane but cruel; that the reiteration of the badness of our spiritual condition will make us consent to it.
Lionel TrillingRead
Americans are willing to go to enormous trouble and expense defending their principles with arms, very little trouble and expense advocating them with words. Temperamentally we are ready to die for certain principles (or, in the case of overripe adults, send youngsters to die), but we show little inclination to advertise the reasons for dying.
E. B. WhiteRead
Death will be too late to bring us aid.
William Carlos WilliamsRead
The further I wake into this life, the more I realize that God is everywhere and the extraordinary is waiting quietly beneath the skin of all that is ordinary. Light is in both the broken bottle and the diamond, and music is in both the flowing violin and the water dripping from the drainage pipe. Yes, God is under the porch as well as on top of the mountain, and joy is in both the front row and the bleachers, if we are willing to be where we are.
Mark NepoRead
If everyone in the world sat quietly at the same time, closed their eyes and concentrated as hard as they could on peace and goodwill, all the killing and cruelty in the world would continue. And probably increase.
George CarlinRead
Every creature is a word of God.
Meister EckhartRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.