Whatever the misery, he could not regain contentment with a world which, once doubted, became absurd.
Interpretation
The quote reflects a sense of despair and absurdity in perceiving the world after losing faith in it.
Sinclair Lewis expresses that once a person has questioned the reality and morality of the world around them, it becomes impossible to find peace or happiness within it. The sense of absurdity arises from the contradiction between the pursuit of contentment and the disillusionment that comes from recognizing the world's flaws.
In practice
During a philosophy class discussion on existentialism.
Upon this theology he rarely pondered. The kernel of his practical religion was that it was respectable, and beneficial to one's business, to be seen going to services; that the church kept the Worst Elements from being still worse; and that the pastor's sermons, however dull they might seem at the time of taking, yet had a voodooistic power which 'did a fellow good-- kept him in touch with Higher Things.
Intellectually I know that America is no better than any other country; emotionally I know she is better than every other country.
Writers kid themselves-about themselves and other people. Take the talk about writing methods. Writing is just work-there's no secret. If you dictate or use a pen or type with your toes-it is just work.
She did her work with the thoroughness of a mind which reveres details and never quite understands them.
Writing is just work-there's no secret. If you dictate or use a pen or type or write with your toes-it's still just work.
It is, I think, an error to believe that there is any need of religion to make life seem worth living.
When explorers first encountered my people, they called us heathens, sun worshippers. They didn't understand that the sun is a relative and illuminates our path on this earth.
This awful catastrophe is not the end but the beginning. History does not end so. It is the way its chapters open.
In the 21st century, we can't create security by building walls.
Religion has actually convinced people that there's an invisible man living in the sky.
I went to India and was quite taken with it. There's a feeling there that things are holy first and useful second.
We must remember that the people of all the States are entitled to all the privileges and immunities of the citizen of the several States. We should bear this in mind, and act in such a way as to say nothing insulting or irritating. I would inculcate this idea, so that we may not, like Pharisees, set ourselves up to be better than other people.
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