You can find shame in every house, burning in an ashtray, hanging framed upon a wall, covering a bed. But nobody notices it any more.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that shame exists in everyday life but often goes unnoticed by people.
Salman Rushdie's quote reflects on the pervasive nature of shame in human existence. It points out that shame is not only personal but also woven into the fabric of our homes and lives, manifesting in various forms, yet society has become desensitized to its presence. This sentiment highlights the need for greater awareness and acknowledgment of the emotions we often ignore or overlook.
In practice
This quote can be used during a discussion about mental health to emphasize the commonality of shame.
I've been fascinated by Machiavelli since I was very young. I've always felt that he had a bad rap from history, and that he was actually a person quite unlike what we now think of as Machiavellian. He was a republican. He disliked totalitarian government.
Killing people because you don't like their ideas - it's a bad thing.
faith without doubt is addiction
I am clearly vulnerable to these more passionate and volatile unstable relationships. I am trying to not be so vulnerable.
In India, as elsewhere in our darkening world, religion is the poison in the blood. Where religion intervenes, mere innocence is no excuse. Yet we go on skating around this issue, speaking of religion in the fashionable language of 'respect.' What is there to respect in any of this, or in any of the crimes now being committed almost daily around the world in religion's dreaded name?
Reality is a question of perspective; the further you get from the past, the more concrete and plausible it seems - but as you approach the present, it inevitably seems more and more incredible.
My God! How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy!
The necessary thing is after all but this; solitude, great inner solitude. Going into oneself for hours meeting no one - this one must be able to attain.
We are the species who cooks. No other species cooks. And when we learned to cook, we became truly human.
Prayer does not change God, but it changes him who prays.
The waters are in motion, but the moon retains its serenity.
Raw hatred took its time making an outpost of its rage and prepared for me a savage crown with rusty, bloodstained spikes. It wasn't pride that made me keep my heart at a distance from such terror, nor did I waste on revenge or the pursuit of power the forces that came from my selfish griefs or my accumulated joys. It was something else-my helplessness.
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