We burned with love for ourselves, all of us, starters of the fire we suffered- our love was the affliction for which only our love was the cure.
Jonathan Safran FoerRead
What do babies dream of? She must be dreaming of the before-life, just as I dream of the afterlife.
Interpretation
This quote explores the concept of dreams and the continuity of existence beyond life.
In this quote, Jonathan Safran Foer reflects on the idea of dreams as a window to experiences and realms beyond our current lives. He juxtaposes the dreams of babies, who may be connected to a state before birth, with his own musings about the afterlife, suggesting a shared interest in what exists before and after our physical existence, and inviting contemplation on the cycles of life and consciousness.
In practice
In a discussion about the meaning of life during a philosophy class.
We burned with love for ourselves, all of us, starters of the fire we suffered- our love was the affliction for which only our love was the cure.
Memory was supposed to fill the time, but it made time a hole to be filled. Each second was two hundred yards, to be walked, crawled. You couldn't see the next hour, it was so far in the distance. Tomorrow was over the horizon, and would take an entire day to reach.
She was not crying Which surprised me very much But I understand now That she had found places For her melancholy That were behind more masks Than only her eyes
A few weeks after the worst day, I started writing lots of letters. I don't know why, but it was one of the only things that made my boots lighter.
What is being awake if not interpreting our dreams, or dreaming if not interpreting our wake?
Just how destructive does a culinary preference have to be before we decide to eat something else? If contributing to the suffering of billions of animals that live miserable lives and (quite often) die in horrific ways isn't motivating, what would be? If being the number one contributor to the most serious threat facing the planet (global warming) isn't enough, what is? And if you are tempted to put off these questions of conscience, to say not now, then when?
We have so little faith in the ebb and flow of life, of love, of relationships. We leap at the flow of time and resist in terror its ebb. We are afraid it will never return. We insist on permanency, on duration, on continuity; when the only continuity possible in life, as in love, is in growth, in fluidity - in freedom.
We ought not to schismatize on either men or measures. Principles alone can justify that.
It is only our deeds that reveal who we are.
Death walks faster than the wind and never returns what he has taken.
My view is that if there is no evidence for it, then forget about it. An agnostic is somebody who doesnβt believe in something until there is evidence for it, so Iβm agnostic.
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