“Most people get a fair amount of fun out of their lives, but on balance life is suffering, and only the very young or the very foolish imagine otherwise.”

"Lear, Tolstoy and the Fool," Polemic (March 1947)
Context: A normal human being does not want the Kingdom of Heaven: he wants life on earth to continue. This is not solely because he is "weak," "sinful" and anxious for a "good time." Most people get a fair amount of fun out of their lives, but on balance life is suffering, and only the very young or the very foolish imagine otherwise. Ultimately it is the Christian attitude which is self-interested and hedonistic, since the aim is always to get away from the painful struggle of earthly life and find eternal peace in some kind of Heaven or Nirvana. The humanist attitude is that the struggle must continue and that death is the price of life.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 30, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Most people get a fair amount of fun out of their lives, but on balance life is suffering, and only the very young or t…" by George Orwell?
George Orwell photo
George Orwell 473
English author and journalist 1903–1950

Related quotes

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe photo

“It is the most foolish of all errors for young people of good intelligence to imagine that they will forfeit their originality if they acknowledge truth already acknowledged by others.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German writer, artist, and politician

Der thörigste von allen Irrthümern ist, wenn junge gute Köpfe glauben, ihre Originalität zu verlieren, indem sie das Wahre anerkennen, was von andern schon anerkannt worden.
Maxim 254, trans. Stopp
Maxims and Reflections (1833)

Sam Levenson photo
Aaron Klug photo

“People who get Nobel prizes aren't necessarily the most imaginative of people. People who sometimes find a system, develop a system, do very useful work.”

Aaron Klug (1926–2018) British chemist and biophysicist

Interview, 17 June 2005 http://library.cshl.edu/oralhistory/interview/scientific-experience/women-science/aaron-rosalind-franklin/.

Karen Blixen photo
Katherine Heigl photo
Kenzaburō Ōe photo

“To be upright and to have an imagination: that is enough to be a very good young man.”

Kenzaburō Ōe (1935) Japanese author

Conversations with History interview (1999)

Anna Funder photo
George Bernard Shaw photo

“Lies hurt people; imagination makes life more fun.”

Relentless

William Makepeace Thackeray photo

“Next to the very young, I suppose the very old are the most selfish.”

Source: The Virginians (1857-1859), Ch. 61.

Related topics