'Nobody can stay in the garden of Eden,' Jacques said. And then: 'I wonder why.' I have thought about… — James Baldwin
'Nobody can stay in the garden of Eden,' Jacques said. And then: 'I wonder why.'
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.
p. 22Source: Wikiquote · CC BY-SA 4.0
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