With age, you see people fail more. You see yourself fail more. How do you keep that fearlessness of a kid? You keep going. Luckily, I'm not afraid to make a fool of myself.
Interpretation
The quote reflects the importance of maintaining a childlike fearlessness in the face of failures as one ages.
Hugh Jackman's quote highlights the reality of experiencing more failures with age, both in observing others and in one's own life. However, he emphasizes the importance of retaining the fearless spirit of childhood, allowing one to continue trying and pursuing goals despite setbacks. This fearless approach is crucial for personal growth and resilience, as it empowers individuals to embrace mistakes rather than shy away from them.
In practice
Use this quote to inspire a group of students facing exams to embrace failures as part of learning.
Acting is something I love. It's a great craft that I have a lot of respect for. But I don't think it's any greater challenge than teaching 8-year-olds or any other career. In my life, I try not to make it more important than it is and I just hope that rubs off on the people around me.
Becoming a father, I think it inevitably changes your perspective of life. I don't get nearly enough sleep. And the simplest things in life are completely satisfying. I find you don't have to do as much, like you don't go on as many outings.
I've always felt that if you back down from a fear, the ghost of that fear never goes away. It diminishes people. So I've always said 'yes' to the thing I'm most scared about. The fear of letting myself down - of saying 'no' to something that I was afraid of and then sitting in my room later going, 'I wish I'd had the guts to say this or that' - that galvanizes me more than anything.
Because I believe actually the more you do something, the less frightening it becomes because you start to realize the outcome is not as important as you think.
I think the most interesting question is, why do you act? I act because I have felt in acting some of the most free moments of my life...I think it's also one thing that scares me the most.
I have a terrific marriage, but unlike a lot of relationships where they ebb and flow, no matter what happens you fall deeper and deeper in love every day. It's kind of the best thing that can happen to you. It's thrilling.
To inquisitive minds like yours and mine the reflection that the quantity of human knowledge bears no proportion to the quantity of human ignorance must be in one view rather pleasing, viz., that though we are to live forever we may be continually amused and delighted with learning something new.
Knowledge must come through action. You can have no test which is not fanciful, save by trial.
When you are famous it is hard to work on small problems. This is what did [Claude Elwood] Shannon in. After information theory, what do you do for an encore? The great scientists often make this error. They fail to continue to plant the little acorns from which the mighty oak trees grow. They try to get the big thing right off. And that isn't the way things go. So that is another reason why you find that when you get early recognition it seems to sterilize you.
All life battles teach us something, even those we lose
The victories of character are instant, and victories for all.
The ancestor of every action is a thought. —Ralph Waldo Emerson
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