Instruction Quote by T. S. Eliot
“We took up our positions, in obedience to instructions.”
About This Quote
Source Poem: "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", 1915
Obedience leads to taking positions without questioning, reflecting conformity or duty.
In simple terms: We obeyed and took our places.
Key Takeaway
Question blind obedience.
Themes
obedience
authority
conformity
Mood
thoughtful
critical
Type
philosophical
reflective
When to use this quote
- military drills
- workplace hierarchy
- rituals
- political movements
Key Concepts
literary analysis
social psychology
Questions to Reflect On
- When have you followed orders without doubt?
- What are the costs of conformity?
A Different Perspective
Blind obedience can suppress critical thought.
![“the ordinary man's experience is chaotic, irregular, fragmentary. [He] falls in love or reads Spinoza, and these two experiences have nothing to do with each other, or with the noise of the typewriter, or the smell of cooking; in the mind of the poet these experiences are always forming new wholes” quote by T. S. Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/18e/t-s-eliot-633_art_the-ordinary-man-s-experience-is-chaotic_93688.jpg)
![“[Decoding the human genome sequence] is the most significant undertaking that we have mounted so far in an organized way in all of science. I believe that reading our blueprints, cataloguing our own instruction book, will be judged by history as more significant than even splitting the atom or…” quote by Francis Collins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/5c6/francis-collins-5281_atoms_decoding-the-human-genome-sequence-is-th_15604.jpg)
