QuoteProject
there is no ascent to the heights without prior descent into darkness, no new life without some form of death.
Karen Armstrong
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Growth and transformation often require experiencing difficult times and letting go of the past.

Karen Armstrong's quote emphasizes the necessity of enduring challenges and hardships as a precursor to achieving greatness and new beginnings. It suggests that without experiencing setbacks, loss, or deep struggles, one cannot truly appreciate the heights of success or the joy of new experiences that follow.

Themes

GrowthStrugglesTransformationChallengesLifeNew Beginnings

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be used to inspire students facing exams or difficult projects.

More from Karen Armstrong

Compassion is the key in Islam and Buddhism and Judaism and Christianity. They are profoundly similar.
Karen ArmstrongRead
Yet a personal God can become a grave liability. He can be a mere idol carved in our own image, a projection of our limited needs, fears and desires. We can assume that he loves what we love and hates what we hate, endorsing our prejudices instead of compelling us to transcend them.
Karen ArmstrongRead
When violence becomes imbedded in a region, then this affects everything. It affects your dreams, your fantasies and relationships, and your religion becomes violent, too.
Karen ArmstrongRead
Far from being the father of jihad, [Prophet] Mohammad was a peacemaker, who risked his life and nearly lost the loyalty of his closest companions because he was determined to effect a reconciliation with Mecca
Karen ArmstrongRead
Yes, all fundamentalists feel that in a secular society, God has been relegated to the margin, to the periphery and they are all in different ways seeking to drag him out of that peripheral position, back to center stage.
Karen ArmstrongRead
Religion is a search for transcendence. But transcendence isn't necessarily sited in an external god, which can be a very unspiritual, unreligious concept.
Karen ArmstrongRead

Similar quotes

What a lovely surprise to finally discover how unlonely being alone can be.
Ellen BurstynRead
It’s all fine to say, “Time will heal everything, this too shall pass away. People will forget”—and things like that when you are not involved, but when you are there is no passage of time, people do not forget and you are in the middle of something that does not change.
John SteinbeckRead
Danger is the spice of life and you’ve got to take a risk now and then…that’s what makes life worthwhile.
Anthony HopkinsRead
No one ever asks a kid for her opinion, but it seems to me that growing up means you stop hoping for the best, and start expecting the worst.
Jodi PicoultRead
Everybody complains about getting older, but I find it such a rich time of life. There are negative things about it, I suppose, but more than that, I'm finding it to be a very positive experience in which growth suggests itself in a much more alluring way than it did when I was young - isn't that funny?
Elizabeth BergRead
For the millions of us who live glued to computer keyboards at work and TV monitors at home, food may be more than entertainment. It may be the only sensual experience left.
Barbara EhrenreichRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.