Reading was like a drug, a dope. The novels created moods in which I lived for days.
Richard WrightRead
Anything seemed possible, likely, feasible, because I wanted everything to be possible... Because I had no power to make things happen outside of me in the objective world, I made things happen within. Because my environment was bare and bleak, I endowed it with unlimited potentialities, redeemed it for the sake of my own hungry and cloudy yearning.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects the power of imagination and belief in one's own potential to create change, even in difficult circumstances.
Richard Wright emphasizes the importance of inner vision and determination in transforming one's environment and outlook on life. Despite facing external limitations and a bleak reality, he suggests that by believing in endless possibilities and drawing from one's desires, an individual can create a sense of hope and potential within their own mind. This quote serves as a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the capacity to envision a better future through personal conviction and creativity.
Themes
ImaginationPotentialBeliefResilienceInner Strength
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about overcoming obstacles.
More from Richard Wright
All quotes →It had been only through books-at best, no more than vicarious cultural transfusions-that I had managaed to keep myself alive in a negatively vital way. Whenever my environment had failed to support or nourish me, I had clutched at books.
Richard WrightRead
I was not leaving the south to forget the south, but so that some day I might understand it
Richard WrightRead
Hunger has always been more or less at my elbow when I played, but now I began to wake up at night to find hunger standing at my bedside, staring at my gauntly.
Richard WrightRead
He had lived and acted on the assumption that he was alone, and now he saw that he had not been. What he had done made others suffer. No matter how much he would long for them to forget him, they would not be able to. His family was a part of him, not only in blood, but in spirit.
Richard WrightRead
It made me love talk that sought answers to questions that could help nobody, that could only keep alive in me that enthralling sense of wonder and awe in the face of the drama of human feeling which is hidden by the external drama of life.
Richard WrightRead
Similar quotes
I claim to be no more than the average person with less than average ability. I have not the shadow of a doubt that any man or woman can achieve what I have, if he or she would make the same effort and cultivate the same hope and faith.
Mahatma GandhiRead
Often faith isn't hoping that good times are coming; it's trying to see that the good times are here.
Marianne WilliamsonRead
My hopes were never brighter than now.
Frederick DouglassRead
The brightest star on a cloudless night_x000D_ _x000D_ Some kind of miracle, almost empty sky..._x000D_ _x000D_ Just as the bite of the blade wakes the absent mind_x000D_ _x000D_ There's time to dream and there's time to open your eyes
Dave MatthewsRead
I've been given this amazing platform as an Olympic athlete, and there are so many people out there who don't feel like their voice is being heard. I feel it's my responsibility to speak out on issues that are important.
Adam RipponRead
And now let me address all of you, high and low, rich and poor, one with another, to accept of mercy and grace while it is offered to you; Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation; and will you not accept it, now it is offered unto you?
George WhitefieldRead