All charming people have something to conceal, usually their total dependence on the appreciation of others.
Cyril ConnollyRead
The river of truth is always splitting up into arms that reunite. Islanded between them, the inhabitants argue for a lifetime as to which is the mainstream.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Truth can be complex and multifaceted, leading to different interpretations and disagreements among people.
Cyril Connolly's quote suggests that the nature of truth is intricate, akin to a river that branches into various paths. These diverging paths represent differing perspectives and interpretations of truth, leading individuals to spend their lives debating which viewpoint is the most valid. The 'island' metaphor highlights the isolation that arises when people cling to their beliefs, often at the expense of recognizing the interconnectedness of all truths.
Themes
TruthPerspectivesDebateLifeUnderstanding
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about philosophical debates during a university lecture.
More from Cyril Connolly
All quotes βWhen I contemplate the accumulation of guilt and remorse which, like a garbage-can, I carry through life, and which is fed not only by the lightest action but by the most harmless pleasure, I feel Man to be of all living things the most biologically incompetent and ill-organized. Why has he acquired a seventy years life-span only to poison it incurably by the mere being of himself? Why has he thrown Conscience, like a dead rat, to putrefy in the well?
Cyril ConnollyRead
A lazy person, whatever the talents with which he set out, will have condemned himself to second-hand thoughts and to second-rate friends.
Cyril ConnollyRead
The artist is a member of the leisured classes who cannot pay for his leisure.
Cyril ConnollyRead
We are all serving a life sentence in the dungeon of the self.
Cyril ConnollyRead
Imprisoned in every fat man a thin man is wildly signaling to be let out.
Cyril ConnollyRead
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