When I have one martini, I feel bigger, wiser, taller. When I have a second, I feel superlative. When I have more, there's no holding me.
William FaulknerRead
He had a word, too. Love, he called it. But I had been used to words for a long time. I knew that that word was like the others: just a shape to fill a lack; that when the right time came, you wouldn't need a word for that any more than for pride or fear....One day I was talking to Cora. She prayed for me because she believed I was blind to sin, wanting me to kneel and pray too, because people to whom sin is just a matter of words, to them salvation is just words too.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the complexity of love and how words can often fail to capture its true essence.
In this quote by William Faulkner, the speaker contemplates the limitations of language when it comes to expressing deep emotions such as love. He suggests that love is more than just a word; it is an experience that transcends verbal articulation. The speaker also critiques the idea that religious and moral concepts can become mere words devoid of genuine meaning, implying that true understanding and feelings require more than verbal acknowledgment.
Themes
LoveWordsSinSalvationEmotionExperience
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared during a discussion about the nature of love in a relationship seminar.
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Ever since then I have believed that God is not only a gentleman and a sport; he is a Kentuckian too.
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Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but that's the only way you can do anything really good.
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