Sin and love and fear are just sounds that people who never sinned nor loved nor feared have for what they never had and cannot have until they forgot the words...
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Abstract concepts like sin and love are just words until experienced personally.
- In plain terms
- Words for deep feelings mean nothing without real experience.
- What can you take from it?
- Experience gives meaning to abstract words.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What word feels empty to you?
Another view
Language can still convey shared understanding without direct experience.
More from William Faulkner
He had a word, too. Love, he called it. But I had been used to words for a long time. I knew that that word was like the others: just a shape to fill a lack; t…
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