"There is only one thing that a man really wants to do, all his life; and that is, to find his way to his God, his Morning Star, salute his fellow man, and enjoy the woman who has come the long way with him"
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Lawrence rigs this line like a compass: spiritual north, social east, erotic south, all insisting they belong on the same map. The first clause sounds like a universal claim, but it’s really a Lawrencean narrowing. “Only one thing” is less philosophy than provocation, a refusal of modern life’s cluttered ambitions. He’s pushing against the early 20th century’s faith in progress-by-committee - industry, institutions, polite morality - and trying to restore what he saw as the body’s and soul’s older loyalties.
The phrasing makes that agenda felt. “Find his way” implies wandering, not doctrine: God isn’t inherited so much as tracked, like a scent. Calling God a “Morning Star” strips religion of churchy furniture and gives it pagan brightness, desire, and orientation - a celestial object you move toward, not a rulebook that moves you. Then the surprising pivot: “salute his fellow man.” It’s not “love” or “serve,” but a brief, ritual acknowledgment. Lawrence has little patience for mass sentimentality; he prefers a hard-won, clear-eyed human connection that doesn’t pretend to solve everything.
The last movement is the most charged: “enjoy the woman who has come the long way with him.” “Enjoy” is blunt, almost defiant in its sensuality, and “long way” hints at ordeal, migration, shared hardship - companionship earned rather than idealized. The subtext is both tender and proprietary, revealing the period’s gendered assumptions even as Lawrence tries to elevate erotic partnership to something like a sacred practice. It works because it refuses to split the human being into separate compartments: faith, society, and sex are one continuous journey, not rival allegiances.
The phrasing makes that agenda felt. “Find his way” implies wandering, not doctrine: God isn’t inherited so much as tracked, like a scent. Calling God a “Morning Star” strips religion of churchy furniture and gives it pagan brightness, desire, and orientation - a celestial object you move toward, not a rulebook that moves you. Then the surprising pivot: “salute his fellow man.” It’s not “love” or “serve,” but a brief, ritual acknowledgment. Lawrence has little patience for mass sentimentality; he prefers a hard-won, clear-eyed human connection that doesn’t pretend to solve everything.
The last movement is the most charged: “enjoy the woman who has come the long way with him.” “Enjoy” is blunt, almost defiant in its sensuality, and “long way” hints at ordeal, migration, shared hardship - companionship earned rather than idealized. The subtext is both tender and proprietary, revealing the period’s gendered assumptions even as Lawrence tries to elevate erotic partnership to something like a sacred practice. It works because it refuses to split the human being into separate compartments: faith, society, and sex are one continuous journey, not rival allegiances.
Quote Details
| Topic | Soulmate |
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