When I have one martini, I feel bigger, wiser, taller. When I have a second, I feel superlative. When I have more, there's no holding me.
William FaulknerRead
It's the most satisfying occupation man has discovered yet, because you never can quite do it as well as you want to, so there's always something to wake up tomorrow morning to do.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Life involves continuous striving for improvement, providing endless opportunities for growth and fulfillment.
This quote by William Faulkner reflects the idea that the pursuit of one’s work or passion is inherently satisfying because it allows for continual growth and exploration. It captures the essence of human endeavor, emphasizing that the imperfections in our efforts encourage us to strive for better results each day, instilling a sense of purpose and motivation to wake up and try again.
Themes
SatisfactionOccupationImprovementPurposeMotivation
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about personal growth, one might say, 'As Faulkner noted, the most satisfying occupation brings us daily opportunities for improvement.'
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When grown people speak of the innocence of children, they dont really know what they mean. Pressed, they will go a step further and say, Well, ignorance then. The child is neither. There is no crime which a boy of eleven had not envisaged long ago. His only innocence is, he may not be old enough to desire the fruits of it...his ignorance is, he does not know how to commit it...
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Maybe times are never strange to women: it is just one continuous monotonous thing full of the repeated follies of their menfolks.
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He had a word, too. Love, he called it. But I had been used to words for a long time. I knew that that word was like the others: just a shape to fill a lack; that when the right time came, you wouldn't need a word for that any more than for pride or fear....One day I was talking to Cora. She prayed for me because she believed I was blind to sin, wanting me to kneel and pray too, because people to whom sin is just a matter of words, to them salvation is just words too.
William FaulknerRead
Ever since then I have believed that God is not only a gentleman and a sport; he is a Kentuckian too.
William FaulknerRead
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