The despondency that follows makes me feel somewhat like a shipwrecked man who spies a sail, sees himself saved, and suddenly remembers that the lens of his spyglass has a flaw, a blurred spot -- the sail he has seen.
Jean GenetRead
It's a true image, born of a false spectacle.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that reality is often obscured by illusions or façades.
Jean Genet's quote reflects the idea that what we perceive as true or real can often be influenced by deceptive appearances. It implies that genuine understanding or insight can emerge even from misleading or artificial situations, encouraging a deeper exploration of reality beyond superficial judgments.
Themes
RealityIllusionPerceptionTruthAppearance
In practice
Example use cases
In a philosophical discussion about the nature of truth.
More from Jean Genet
All quotes →Erotic play discloses a nameless world which is revealed by the nocturnal language of lovers. Such language is not written down. It is whispered into the ear at night in a hoarse voice. At dawn it is forgotten.
Jean GenetRead
I'm homosexual. How and why are idle questions. It's a little like wanting to know why my eyes are green.
Jean GenetRead
I wanted to swallow myself by opening my mouth very wide and turning it over my head so that it would take in my whole body, and then the Universe, until all that would remain of me would be a ball of eaten thing which little by little would be annihilated: that is how I see the end of the world.
Jean GenetRead
I decided to be what crime made of me.
Jean GenetRead
Anyone who hasn't experienced the ecstasy of betrayal knows nothing about ecstasy at all.
Jean GenetRead
Similar quotes
This is the work of Nâma-Rupa - name and form. Everything that has form, everything that calls up an idea in your mind, is within Maya; for everything that is bound by the laws of time, space, and causation is within Maya.
Swami VivekanandaRead
What difference is there in the color of the soul?
Solomon NorthupRead
Know not to revere human things too much.
AeschylusRead
We are building together a nation in which there are no second-class Australians.
Bob HawkeRead
These systems attempt to box God into a government confined within the perspective of man. Yet when humanity is used as the starting point for interpreting and interacting with God's creation, faulty theology and sociology emerge as mankind attempts to fashion God into the image of man.
Tony EvansRead
Faith, like a jackal, feeds among the tombs, and even from these dead doubts she gathers her most vital hope.
Herman MelvilleRead