“Nobody can stay in the garden of Eden,' Jacques said. And then: 'I wonder why.”

— James Baldwin , book Giovanni's Room

I have thought about Jacques' question since. Everyone, after all, goes the same dark road - and the road has a trick of being most dark, most treacherous, when it seems most bright - and it's true that nobody stays in the garden of Eden. Perhaps everybody has a garden of Eden, I don't know; but they have scarcely seen their garden before they see the flaming sword. Then, perhaps, life only offers the choice of remembering the garden or forgetting it. Either, or.
Pt. 1, Ch. 2 - p.22
Giovanni's Room (1956)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update May 29, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Nobody can stay in the garden of Eden,' Jacques said. And then: 'I wonder why." by James Baldwin?

James Baldwin 163

(1924-1987) writer from the United States 1924–1987

Related quotes

“Allah's Apostle said, "In Paradise there is a pavilion made of a single hollow pearl sixty miles wide, in each corner of which there are wives who will not see those in the other corners; and the believers will visit and enjoy them. And there are two gardens, the utensils and contents of which are made of silver; and two other gardens, the utensils and contents of which are made of so-and-so (i. e. gold) and nothing will prevent the people staying in the Garden of Eden from seeing their Lord except the curtain of Majesty over His Face."”

Muhammad (570–632) Arabian religious leader and the founder of Islam

Narrated Abdullah bin Qais, in Bukhari, Volume 6, Book 60, Number 402
Sunni Hadith

“I always wonder why birds choose to stay in the same place when they can fly anywhere on the earth, then I ask myself the same question.”

Harun Yahya (1956) Turkish author

“If the husband sits on a chair in the Garden of Eden, his wife is his footstool.”

Isaac Leib Peretz (1852–1915) Yiddish language author and playwright

Sholom Bayis, 1889. S. Liptzin. Peretz. Yivo, 1947, p. 153.

“Wilem snorted."That doesn't sound suspicious at all," he said. "And you wonder why people talk about you."

"I don't wonder why they talk," I said "I wonder what they say.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Wise Man's Fear

Source: The Wise Man's Fear

“A soul is a troublesome possession, and when man developed it he lost the Garden of Eden.”

W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) British playwright, novelist, short story writer

Red http://books.google.com/books?id=6ZZgZw5yX8QC&q="a+soul+is+a+troublesome+possession+and+when+man+developed+it+he+lost+the+Garden+of+Eden"&pg=PA413#v=onepage (1921)

“I have to say this in defense of humankind: No matter in what era in history, including the Garden of Eden, everybody just got there.”

Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007) American writer

Cold Turkey (2004)
Context: I have to say this in defense of humankind: No matter in what era in history, including the Garden of Eden, everybody just got there. And, except for the Garden of Eden, there were already all these crazy games going on, which could make you act crazy, even if you weren’t crazy to begin with. Some of the games that were already going on when you got here were love and hate, liberalism and conservatism, automobiles and credit cards, golf and girls’ basketball.
Even crazier than golf, though, is modern American politics, where, thanks to TV and for the convenience of TV, you can only be one of two kinds of human beings, either a liberal or a conservative.