Gradually I came to realize that people will more readily swallow lies than truth, as if the taste of lies was homey, appetizing: a habit.
It would be a bitter cosmic joke if we destroy ourselves due to atrophy of the imagination.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote warns against losing our creativity and imagination, suggesting that our failure to innovate may lead to our downfall.
Martha Gellhorn's quote reflects a profound concern about the human condition, emphasizing that the decline of our imaginative capabilities can lead us to self-destruction. It suggests that without creativity and the ability to envision alternative futures, humanity may fall into complacency or despair, ultimately causing its own demise. This statement serves as a reminder of the importance of nurturing our imagination and striving for innovative solutions as a safeguard against societal decline.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be shared during a discussion on the importance of creativity in education.
More from Martha Gellhorn
All quotes βthe ends never justify the means because IT never ends.
Citizenship is a tough occupation which obliges the citizen to make his own informed opinion and stand by it.
I followed the war wherever I could reach it.
Thousand got away to other countries; thousands returned to Spain tempted by false promises of kindness. By the tens of thousands, these Spaniards died of neglect in the concentration camps.
By its existence, the Peace Movement denies that governments know best; it stands for a different order of priorities: the human race comes first.
Similar quotes
A fanatic commits to an ideal to whatever end. A fanatic throws everything aside to pursue their idea. Take something which it would be good to be committed to, like basic human rights. You might campaign for such a thing. You might spend every day of your life pursuing such a thing. But once you become fanatical about it, anything can happen.
Am I as spontaneously kind to God as I used to be, or am I only expecting God to be kind to me? Am I full of the little things that cheer His heart over me, or am I whimpering because things are going hardly with me? There is no joy in the soul that has forgotten what God prizes.
To Yossarian, the idea of pennants as prizes was absurd. No money went with them, no class privileges. Like Olympic medals and tennis trophies, all they signified was that the owner had done something of no benefit to anyone more capably than everyone else.
The mentality of mankind and the language of mankind created each other. If we like to assume the rise of language as a given fact, then it is not going too far to say that the souls of men are the gift from language to mankind. The account of the sixth day should be written: He gave them speech, and they became souls.
The cultivation - even celebration - of victimhood by intellectuals, tort lawyers, politicians and the media is both cause and effect of today's culture of complaint.
I am an unwilling devil. I cry like some vagrant child. I want to go home.