I feel with some passion that what we truly are is private, and almost infinitely complex, and ambiguous, and both external and internal, and double- or triple- or multiply natured, and largely mysterious even to ourselves; and furthermore that what we are is only part of us, because identity, unlike "identity", must include what we do. And I think that to find oneself and every aspect of this complexity reduced in the public mind to one property that apparently subsumes all the rest ("gay", "black", "Muslim", whatever) is to be the victim of a piece of extraordinary intellectual vulgarity.
equality identity wisdom

About This Quote

About Philip Pullman

Philip Pullman was a contemporary English author. Sir Philip Nicholas Outram Pullman is an English writer. He is best known for the fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials. Read more on Wikipedia →

Themes

  • Wisdom — Timeless insights drawn from experience and reflection

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