{
  "type": "quote",
  "site": {
    "name": "Leafy Quotes",
    "language": "en",
    "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com"
  },
  "formats": "Every page has two versions with the same data: JSON (the page address + .json) and markdown (the page address + .md). Append .json or .md to any `url` in this document.",
  "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-alexander-percy/lanterns-on-the-levee/only-one-thing",
  "json": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-alexander-percy/lanterns-on-the-levee/only-one-thing.json",
  "markdown": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-alexander-percy/lanterns-on-the-levee/only-one-thing.md",
  "id": "44feff8f-a31b-4ce9-9446-d2d6a9726fa6",
  "slug": "only-one-thing",
  "text": "Only one thing never changes – the human heart. Revolutions and ideologies may lacerate it, even break it, but they cannot change its essence. After Fascism and Communism and Capitalism and Socialism are over and forgotten as completely as slavery and the old South, that same headstrong human heart will be clamoring for the old things it wept for in Eden – love and a chance to be noble, laughter and a chance to adore something, someone, somewhere. (Ch. 3)",
  "language": "en",
  "author": {
    "name": "William Alexander Percy",
    "slug": "william-alexander-percy",
    "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-alexander-percy"
  },
  "book": {
    "title": "Lanterns On The Levee",
    "slug": "lanterns-on-the-levee",
    "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-alexander-percy/lanterns-on-the-levee"
  },
  "character": null,
  "chapter": null,
  "chapter_parent": null,
  "page": null,
  "verified": false,
  "original": null,
  "other_languages": [],
  "topics": [
    {
      "name": "love",
      "slug": "love",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love"
    },
    {
      "name": "human nature",
      "slug": "human-nature",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature"
    },
    {
      "name": "ideology",
      "slug": "ideology",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ideology"
    }
  ],
  "source": {
    "name": "Wikiquote",
    "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Alexander_Percy#Lanterns_on_the_Levee_(1941)",
    "license": {
      "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
      "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
    }
  },
  "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:50",
  "more_from_book": [
    {
      "id": "ea90cda4-a4f4-47c2-bf8b-37b167d78a78",
      "slug": "honor-and-honesty",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-alexander-percy/lanterns-on-the-levee/honor-and-honesty",
      "text": "Honor and honesty, compassion and truth are good even if they kill you, for they alone give life its dignity and worth. (Ch. 24)",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": null,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "truth",
          "slug": "truth",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth"
        },
        {
          "name": "compassion",
          "slug": "compassion",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion"
        },
        {
          "name": "dignity",
          "slug": "dignity",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/dignity"
        },
        {
          "name": "honour",
          "slug": "honour",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/honour"
        },
        {
          "name": "integrity",
          "slug": "integrity",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/integrity"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Alexander_Percy#Lanterns_on_the_Levee_(1941)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:50"
    },
    {
      "id": "d4dcc570-d4ef-4233-bf58-25567d7872e4",
      "slug": "that-short-period",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-alexander-percy/lanterns-on-the-levee/that-short-period",
      "text": "That short period of my life spent in the line is the only one I remember step by step – as if it moved sub specie aeternitatis. Not that I enjoyed it; I hated it. Not that I was fitted for it by temperament or ability, I was desperately unfitted; but it, somehow, had meaning, and daily life hasn't: it was part of a common endeavor, and daily life is isolated and lonely. (Ch. 17, on his service on the Western Front in World War I)",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": null,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "war",
          "slug": "war",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war"
        },
        {
          "name": "loneliness",
          "slug": "loneliness",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loneliness"
        },
        {
          "name": "meaning of life",
          "slug": "meaning-of-life",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Alexander_Percy#Lanterns_on_the_Levee_(1941)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:50"
    },
    {
      "id": "96f71118-1c2a-48b3-be38-21d467f20562",
      "slug": "what-i-wrote",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-alexander-percy/lanterns-on-the-levee/what-i-wrote",
      "text": "What I wrote seemed to me more essentially myself than anything I did or said. It often gushed up almost involuntarily like automatic writing, and the difficulty lay in keeping the hot gush continuous and unselfconscious while at the same time directing it with cold intellect into form. I never could write in cold blood. The results were intensely personal, whatever their other defects. (Ch. 12, on writing poetry)",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": null,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "writing",
          "slug": "writing",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/writing"
        },
        {
          "name": "poetry",
          "slug": "poetry",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/poetry"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Alexander_Percy#Lanterns_on_the_Levee_(1941)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:50"
    }
  ]
}