QuoteProject
There is no shame in loving. If your septons say there is, your seven gods must be demons. In the isles we know better. Our gods gave us legs to run with, noses to smell with, hands to touch and feel. What mad cruel god would give a man eyes and tell him he must forever keep them shut, and never look at all the beauty in the world? Only a monster god, a demon of the darkness.
George R. R. Martin
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Loving openly is not shameful, and denying love is contrary to the nature of humanity and divinity.

This quote emphasizes the importance of love as a natural and essential aspect of human life, rejecting the notion that love should be hidden or shamed. It criticizes a worldview that sees love as sinful or shameful, suggesting that such a perspective is dehumanizing and contrary to the beauty that life offers.

Themes

LoveBeautyHumanityFreedomNature

In practice

Example use cases

During a speech at a wedding, you could remind everyone that love is a beautiful expression of humanity.

More from George R. R. Martin

One of the great things about books is you can afford to do anything.
George R. R. MartinRead
I hate outlines. I have a broad sense of where the story is going; I know the end, I know the end of the principal characters, and I know the major turning points and events from the books, the climaxes for each book, but I don't necessarily know each twist and turn along the way. That's something I discover in the course of writing and that's what makes writing enjoyable. I think if I outlined comprehensively and stuck to the outline the actual writing would be boring.
George R. R. MartinRead
There is only one god and his name is Death. And there is only one thing we say to Death: “Not today.
George R. R. MartinRead
I did not do it. Yet now I wish I had.’ He turned to face the hall, that sea of pale faces. ‘I wish I had enough poison for you all. You make me sorry that I am not the monster you would have me be, yet there it is. I am innocent, but I will get no justice here.
George R. R. MartinRead
But a voice inside her whispered, There are no heroes, and she remembered what Lord Petyr had said to her, here in this very hall. 'Life is not a song, sweetling,' he'd told her, 'You may learn that one day to your sorrow.' In life, the monsters win, she told herself.
George R. R. MartinRead
I write from this tight third-person viewpoint, where each chapter is seen through the eyes of one individual character. When I'm writing that character, I become that character and identify with that character.
George R. R. MartinRead

Similar quotes

No partner in a love relationship... should feel that he has to give up an essential part of himself to make it viable.
May SartonRead
It is not beauty that endears, it's love that makes us see beauty.
Leo TolstoyRead
My heart is broke, but I have some glue, help me inhale and mend it with you.
Kurt CobainRead
If you were a boy and a girl and you were in love with each other, really, properly in love, and if you could show it, then the people who run Hailsham, they sorted it out for you. They sorted it out so you could have a few years together before you began your donations.
Kazuo IshiguroRead
I loved her for so long. Our past trails behind us like a comet's tail, the future stretched out before us like the universe. Things happen. People get lost and love breaks.
Jonathan TropperRead
An eye is meant to see things. The soul is here for its own joy. A head has one use: For loving a true love. Feet: To chase after. Love is for vanishing into the sky. The mind, for learning what men have done and tried to do. Mysteries are not to be solved: The eye goes blind when it only wants to see why. A lover is always accused of something. But when he finds his love, whatever was lost in the looking comes back completely changed.
RumiRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.