I have need of angels. Enough hell has swallowed me for too many years. But finally understand this--I have burned up one hundred thousand human lives already, from the strength of my pain.
Antonin ArtaudRead
There are souls that are incurable and lost to the rest of society. Deprive them of one means of folly, they will invent ten thousand others. They will create subtler, wilder methods, methods that are absolutely DESPERATE. Nature herself is fundamentally antisocial, it is only by a usurpation of powers that the organized body of society opposes the natural inclination of humanity.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on the inherent struggle between individuality and societal norms, suggesting that those who feel alienated will create their own forms of expression.
Antonin Artaud's quote delves into the notion of individuals who feel disconnected from society, describing them as 'incurable' and 'lost.' He argues that when society restricts these individuals by depriving them of one form of escape or folly, they will find alternate ways to express their desperation and wildness. This conveys a powerful message about the natural human inclination towards freedom and individuality, which clashing with social order, highlights the complexities of human nature and the ways society attempts to control or suppress it.
Themes
SocietyIndividualityFreedomAlienationHuman Nature
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about creativity and self-expression, one could quote Artaud to highlight the necessity of embracing individuality against societal norms.
More from Antonin Artaud
All quotes βCruelty in the theatre is unrelenting decisiveness, diligence, strictness.
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I myself spent nine years in an insane asylum and I never had the obsession of suicide, but I know that each conversation with a psychiatrist, every morning at the time of his visit, made me want to hang myself, realizing that I would not be able to cut his throat.
Antonin ArtaudRead
If our life lacks a constant magic it is because we choose to observe our acts and lose ourselves in consideration of their imagined form and meaning, instead of being impelled by their force.
Antonin ArtaudRead
It is thus that the few rare lucid well-disposed people who have had to struggle on the earth find themselves at certain hours of the day or night in the depth of certain authentic and waking nightmare states, surrounded by the formidable suction, the formidable oppression of a kind of civic magic which will soon be seen appearing openly in social behavior.
Antonin ArtaudRead
A real theatrical experience shakes the calm of the senses, liberates the compressed unconscious and drives towards a kind of potential revolt . . .
Antonin ArtaudRead
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