Laughter is wine for the soul - laughter soft, or loud and deep, tinged through with seriousness - the hilarious declaration made by man that life is worth living.
Sean O'CaseyRead
You cannot put a rope around the neck of an idea: you can not put an idea up against a barracks-square wall and riddle it with bullets: you cannot confine it in the strongest prison cell that your slaves could ever build.
Interpretation
Ideas cannot be suppressed or controlled by force; they will always find a way to emerge and thrive.
Sean O'Casey's quote emphasizes the invincibility and resilience of ideas. No matter how much one attempts to confine or destroy ideas using physical force or oppression, they will persist and find new ways to be expressed and shared. This highlights the power of thought and the inevitability of its influence on society.
In practice
This quote can be shared in a seminar discussing freedom of expression.
Laughter is wine for the soul - laughter soft, or loud and deep, tinged through with seriousness - the hilarious declaration made by man that life is worth living.
If church prelates, past or present, had even an inkling of physiology they'd realize that what they term this inner ugliness creates and nourishes the hearing ear, the seeing eye, the active mind, and energetic body of man and woman, in the same way that dirt and dung at the roots give the plant its delicate leaves and the full-blown rose.
The drama's altar isn't on the stage: it is candle-sticked and flowered in the box office. There is the gold, though there be no frankincense or myrrh; and the gospel for the day always The Play will Run for a Year. The Dove of Inspiration, of the desire for inspiration, has flown away from it; and on it's roof, now, the commonplace crow caws candidly.
Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, great as each may be, their highest comfort given to the sorrowful is a cordial introduction into another's woe. Sorrow's the great community in which all men born of woman are members at one time or another.
Wealth often takes away chances from men as well as poverty. There is none to tell the rich to go on striving, for a rich man makes the law that hallows and hollows his own life.
There's nothing so passionate as a vested interest disguised as an intellectual conviction.
My belief is that "recluse" is a code word generated by journalists... meaning, "doesn't like to talk to reporters."
I despise people who go to the gutter on either the right or the left and hurl rocks at those in the center.
I am baffled by the way sophisticated theologians who know Adam and Eve never existed still keep talking about it.
Ah, what a sign it is of evil life, Where death's approach is seen so terrible!
Take a deep breath and tell us your deepest, darkest secret, so we can wipe our brow and know that we're not alone.
In a very real way, the poor are our teachers. They show us that people’s value is not measured by their possessions or how much money they have in the bank. A poor person, a person lacking material possessions, always maintains his or her dignity. The poor can teach us much about humility and trust in God.
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