Everyone deserves to be the hero of a novel.
William NicholsonRead
To put it another way, pain is God's megaphone to rouse a deaf world. Why must it be pain? Why can't he rouse us more gently, with violins or laughter? Because the dream from which we must be wakened, is the dream that all is well.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Pain serves as a powerful reminder to awaken us to reality.
This quote suggests that pain has a significant role in human experience, acting as a loud signal from a higher power to awaken us from a false sense of security and complacency. It implies that soft and gentle reminders are often ignored, and thus more intense experiences like pain are necessary to jolt us into awareness of our true circumstances and the importance of living authentically.
Themes
PainAwakeningRealityStruggleLife
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about overcoming adversity.
More from William Nicholson
All quotes →Similar quotes
Answer the big question of eternity, and the little questions of life fall into perspective.
Max LucadoRead
I'd woken up early, and I took a long time getting ready to exist.
Fernando PessoaRead
You are so accustomed to think of yourselves as bodies having consciousness that you just cannot imagine consciousness as having bodies. Once you realize that bodily existence is but a state of mind, a movement in consciousness, that the ocean of consciousness is infinite and eternal, and that, when in touch with consciousness, you are the witness only, you will be able to withdraw beyond consciousness altogether.
Sri Nisargadatta MaharajRead
Spirit is never without matter, matter is never without spirit.
Rudolf SteinerRead
It is hard not to see into the future, faced with today's blind architecture - a thousand times more stupid and more revolting than that of other ages. How bored we shall be inside!
Andre BretonRead
In overlooking, denying, evading this complexity--which is nothing more than the disquieting complexity of ourselves--we are diminished and we perish; only within this web of ambiguity, paradox, this hunger, danger, darkness, can we find at once ourselves and the power that will free us from ourselves. It is this power of revelation that is the business of the novelist, this journey toward a more vast reality which must take precedence over other claims.
James A. BaldwinRead