Asklemmy

45440 readers

852 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

Open-ended question
Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

Lemmyverse: community search
sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
!lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

145

What's the underrated quote that will stick with you for life? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 day ago by needthosepylons@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

107 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Even better if you can provide your own understanding of its meaning.

Mine would be :

"Nothing kills a man as much as being forced to represent a country" (and err considering the context, I must stress it has nothing to do with the current US shitshow), by a WW1 soldier, illustrator and writer named Jacques Vaché.

For me it just means being forced into representing a group (national, of course, but maybe also social, racial, sexual, professional, any kind of group) or defining one's identity only by reference to a group is to be avoided at all costs.

Note : Its not the same, imho, as engaging in a collective struggle or defense against a common oppression.

How about you?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] anarcho_vroom@lemmy.dbzer0.com 26 points 1 day ago (1 children)

"It'll never be the same"
In context, meaning that things can never go back to the way they were... Ever.

For me it's like a grounding statement. Whenever I start thinking about some past time and just want things to go back to how they were, I remember this. My mind shifts to the future and I forget that nostalgic feeling because I remember that it can never be.

[–] needthosepylons@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

Oh, yeah. There's another one like this for me, a very short poem I read when I was a teenager :

"Ah, what are they dreaming...? Those who say, say, say... Yesterday I was there, today I was here"