Anyone who has spent a few nights in a tent during a storm can tell you: The world doesn't care all that much if you live or die.
Anthony DoerrRead
The easier an experience, or the more entrenched, or the more familiar, the fainter our sensation of it becomes. This is true of chocolate and marriages and hometowns and narrative structures. Complexities wane, miracles become unremarkable, and if we're not careful, pretty soon we're gazing out at our lives as if through a burlap sack.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Familiar experiences often lose their significance and beauty over time.
In this quote, Anthony Doerr reflects on how our perceptions of familiar experiences—be it chocolate, relationships, or our hometowns—can dull over time. As we grow accustomed to these elements of life, we risk overlooking their inherent wonder and joy, leading to a monotonous existence. This serves as a reminder to remain mindful and appreciative of the complexities and specificities of our experiences to fully embrace life's richness.
Themes
ExperienceFamiliarityPerceptionMindfulnessAppreciationLifeWonder
In practice
Example use cases
During a wedding toast, one might use this quote to remind the couple to cherish the small moments in their marriage.
More from Anthony Doerr
All quotes →I used to think...that I had to be careful with how much I lived. As if life was a pocketful of coins. You only got so much and you didn't want to spend it all in one place...But now I know that life is the one thing in the world that never runs out. I might run out of mine, and you might run out of yours, but the world will never run out of life. And we're all very lucky to be part of something like that.
Anthony DoerrRead
Leave home, leave the country, leave the familiar. Only then can routine experience--buying bread, eating vegetables, even saying hello--become new all over again.
Anthony DoerrRead
I don't believe in reincarnation. I feel like we're here for such an appallingly brief period of time. I believe we each get this one trip, and if we're really, really fortunate, maybe we get 70 or 80 years on Earth.
Anthony DoerrRead
My sister-in-law is a painter, and I'll say, how long did it take you to paint that painting. She'll say, It took me maybe three days, but it took me all my life to get the skills to paint that painting.
Anthony DoerrRead
The preciousness of life and the changes of weather and the beauty of seasons - all those things have always sort of dazzled me.
Anthony DoerrRead
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