Humor Quote by Taras Grescoe
““Walking back across the St-Esprit bridge, to the ghetto I'd instinctively gravitated toward, I mentally erected a more appropriate statue on the square. It would depict an unknown Sephardic Jew, kneeling over a stone tripod covered with crushed cacao beans destined for a cup of chocolate for one of the gentiles of Bayonne. It would be a symbolic piece, executed in smooth, chocolate-hued marble, and dedicated to all the other forgotten heroes--coffee-drinking Sufi dervishes, peyote-eating Native Americans, Mexican hemp-smokers--who, throughout history, have faced the wrath of all the sultans, drug czars, and Vatican clerics who have resorted to any spurious pretext to squelch one of the most venerable and misunderstood of human drives: the desire to escape, however briefly, everyday consciousness.””
About This Quote
Source Essay: Food and Culture, Taras Grescoe, 2015
The author imagines a chocolate statue honoring forgotten heroes who used substances to escape reality, highlighting humanity’s drive for brief mental relief.
In simple terms: A symbolic chocolate statue celebrates those who seek escape through various means.
Key Takeaway
Recognize the universal need for mental respite.
Themes
escape
substance use
memory
cultural history
human resilience
Mood
reflective
poetic
empathetic
Type
essay
cultural
philosophical
When to use this quote
- public art
- cultural remembrance
- substance discussion
- mental health awareness
Key Concepts
symbolism
art
social marginalization
psychology
Questions to Reflect On
- What drives people to seek escape?
- How can societies honor marginalized experiences?
A Different Perspective
The metaphor may romanticize harmful substance use.
![“I gave up trying to establish where progress lay, and where revolution, or to see the plot -- as Amparo's [Brazilian] comrades expressed it -- of capitalism. How could I continue to think like a European once I learned that the hopes of the far left were kept alive by a Nordeste bishop suspected…” quote by Umberto Eco](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/1c2/umberto-eco-313_beauty_i-gave-up-trying-to-establish-where-prog_807144.jpg)
![“[S]ometimes, when you are a food person, the possible irrelevance of what you are doing doesn’t cross your mind until it’s too late. (Once, for example, when I was just starting out in the food business, I was hired by the caper people to develop a lot of recipes using capers, and it was weeks of…” quote by Nora Ephron](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/d79/nora-ephron-1217_business_s-ometimes-when-you-are-a-food-person-th_980.jpg)
