Perhaps it is better to wake up after all, even to suffer, rather than to remain a dupe to illusions all one's life.
Interpretation
Facing reality, even if painful, is preferable to living in ignorance.
In this quote, Kate Chopin expresses the idea that experiencing the truth, even when it leads to suffering, is more valuable than living a life built on false beliefs and illusions. It suggests that confronting reality provides opportunities for growth and awareness, despite the discomfort it may bring.
In practice
In a motivational talk about personal growth, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of facing difficult truths.
She looked into the distance, and the old terror flamed up for an instant, then sank again. Edna heard her father's voice and her sister Margaret's. She heard the barking of an old dog that was chained to the sycamore tree. The spurs of the cavalry officer clanged as he walked across the porch. There was the hum of bees, and the musky odor of pinks filled the air. (last lines)
There were days when she was unhappy, she did not know why,--when it did not seem worthwhile to be glad or sorry, to be alive or dead; when life appeared to her like a grotesque pandemonium and humanity like worms struggling blindly toward inevitable annihilation.
She's got some sort of notion in her head concerning the eternal rights of women.
Well, for instance, when I left her today, she put her arms around me and felt my shoulder blades, to see if my wings were strong, she said.
I would give up the unessential; I would give my money, I would give my life for my children; but I wouldn't give myself.
There would be no one there to live for her during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistance with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature. A kind intention or a cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime as she looked upon it in that brief moment of illumination.
You've never seen death? Look in the mirror every day and you will see it like bees working in a glass hive.
Capitalism and the market are presented as synonymous, but they are not. Capitalism is both the enemy of the market and democracy.
When the supreme magistrate will not execute the judgment of the Lord, those who made him supreme magistrate, under God, who have under God, sovereighn liberty to dispose of crowns and kingdoms, are to execute the judgment of the Lord, when wicked men make the law of God of none effect.
Faith means wanting God and wanting to want nothing else.
God's hand never slips. He never makes a mistake. His every move is for our own good and for our ultimate good.
When a man is in God's grace and free from mortal sin, then everything that he does, so long as there is no sin in it, gives God glory and what does not give him glory has some, however little, sin in it. It is not only prayer that gives God glory but work. Smiting on an anvil, sawing a beam, whitewashing a wall, driving horses, sweeping, scouring, everything gives God some glory if being in his grace you do it as your duty.
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