Married couples who quarrel bitterly every day may really need each other as deeply as those who appear to be desperately in love.
Edward AbbeyRead
The consolation of reading biography: Most great men have led lives even more miserable than our own.
Interpretation
Reading biographies can provide comfort by revealing that even great individuals faced severe hardships.
Edward Abbey's quote highlights the value of biographies in understanding that many celebrated figures in history have endured significant struggles, often more severe than those we experience in our own lives. This perspective can serve as both a comfort and a reminder that greatness does not exempt one from adversity; in fact, it often comes from overcoming it.
In practice
In a speech about resilience, one might quote Abbey to illustrate that personal struggles are universally shared.
Married couples who quarrel bitterly every day may really need each other as deeply as those who appear to be desperately in love.
I love America because it is a confused, chaotic mess - and I hope we can keep it this way for at least another thousand years. The permissive society is the free society.
If it's knowledge and wisdom you want, then seek out the company of those who do real work for an honest purpose.
The earth is real. Only a fool, milking his cow, denies the cow's reality.
I believe in nothing that I cannot touch, kiss, embrace.... The rest is only hearsay.
Why can't we simply borrow what is useful to us from Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, especially Zen, as we borrow from Christianity, science, American Indian traditions and world literature in general, including philosophy, and let the rest go hang? Borrow what we need but rely principally upon our own senses, common sense and daily living experience.
Experience, which destroys innocence, also leads one back to it.
She likes herself, yet others hates, For that which in herself she prizes; And while she laughs at them, forgets She is the thing that she despises.
Lukewarm people will serve God and others, but there are limits to how far they will go or how much time, money, and energy they are willing to give.
My father used to say that if a man fools you once, he's a jerk. If he fools you twice, you're a jerk. Only he didn't use the word "jerk."
Forgiving isn't something you do for someone else. It's something you do for yourself. It's saying, 'You're not important enough to have a stranglehold on me.' It's saying, 'You don't get to trap me in the past. I am worthy of a future.
Be like a flower that gives its fragrance even to the hand that crushed it.
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