Theodore Dreiser
Quote
Many individuals are so constituted that their only thought is to obtain pleasure and shun responsibility. They would like, butterfly-like, to wing forever in a summer garden, flitting from flower to flower, and sipping honey for their sole delight. They have no feeling that any result which might flow from their action should concern them. They have no conception of the necessity of a well-organized society wherein all shall accept a certain quota of responsibility and all realize a reasonable amount of happiness. They think only of themselves because they have not yet been taught to think of society. For them pain and necessity are the great taskmasters. Laws are but the fences which circumscribe the sphere of their operations. When, after error, pain falls as a lash, they do not comprehend that their suffering is due to misbehavior. Many such an individual is so lashed by necessity and law that he falls fainting to the ground, dies hungry in the gutter or rotting in the jail and it never once flashes across his mind that he has been lashed only in so far as he has persisted in attempting to trespass the boundaries which necessity sets. A prisoner of fate, held enchained for his own delight, he does not know that the walls are tall, that the sentinels of life are forever pacing, musket in hand. He cannot perceive that all joy is within and not without. He must be for scaling the bounds of society, for overpowering the sentinel. When we hear the cries of the individual strung up by the thumbs, when we hear the ominous shot which marks the end of another victim who has thought to break loose, we may be sure that in another instance life has been misunderstood--we may be sure that society has been struggled against until death alone would stop the individual from contention and evil.
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Similar Crossword Answers
| Answer | Clues |
|---|---|
| BEAUTY | 218 clues |
| SOCIETY | 126 clues |
| ACCEPTANCE | 119 clues |
| SARCASM | 114 clues |
| CONFIDENCE | 90 clues |
| LIBERTY | 63 clues |
| SERENITY | 46 clues |
| SEXISM | 38 clues |
| FEMINISM | 10 clues |
| MISOGYNY | 8 clues |
| PATRIARCHY | 3 clues |
| SELFISHNESS | 2 clues |
Similar crossword clues
- Theodore Dreiser novel 84.21%
- 1916 Theodore Dreiser book 76.19%
- Theodore Dreiser travelogue 74.42%
- "Sister ___": Dreiser 73.33%
- 1900 novel by Theodore Dreiser 69.57%
- Theodore, for one 68.75%
- Theodore, to friends 68.57%
- Theodore 66.67%
- Theodore Dreiser title character 66.67%
- Theodore's son 66.67%
- Theodore, more familiarly 65.00%
- Theodore Giesel a.k.a. Dr. ____ 65.00%
- "An ___ Tragedy": Dreiser 64.71%
- Theodore Roosevelt's moniker 63.64%
- Theodore Roosevelt's wife 63.41%
- Theodore S. Geisel classic 63.41%
- Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt 63.16%
- Theodore's big brother 63.16%
- Theodore's nickname 62.86%
- Theodore and family 62.86%
Related word tools
Poet’s word, with inverted comma, for the end of the day
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E
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E
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N
Hint 1 meaning
The old plural of Eye.
Hint 2 anagram
EEN
Hint 3 another clue
AND STILL ___
16 +1