I mean, it's like we all get our raw materials from our families―but it's up to us whether we build bridges or bombs.
Neal ShustermanRead
Either things happen for a reason, or they happen for no reason at all. Either one's life is a thread in a glorious tapestry or humanity is just a hopelessly tangled knot.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote explores the purpose of life and the importance of perspective in interpreting our experiences.
Neal Shusterman's quote presents a dichotomy regarding the nature of events in life: either they are part of a meaningful design, contributing to a larger narrative, or they exist randomly, leading to chaos and confusion. This reflection invites us to consider how we view our struggles and experiences, suggesting that our perspective can significantly shape our understanding of life's events and our place within them.
Themes
LifePurposePerspectiveMeaningChaosTapestry
In practice
Example use cases
During a motivational speech about overcoming challenges.
More from Neal Shusterman
All quotes →Unwinds didn't go out with a bang-they didn't even go out with a whimper. they went out with the silence of a candle flame pinched between two fingers.
Neal ShustermanRead
She smiles at them as they go by and continues to play, making it clear that this furnace of a place, full of planes that cannot fly, is more than it seems. It is a womb of redemption for every Unwind, and fora ll those who fought the Heartland War and lost - which was everybody.
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Words don't hurt you." Which is one of the hugest criminal lies perpetrated by adults against children in this world. Because words hurt more than any physical pain.
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Which is worse, Risa often wondered, to have tens of thousands of babies that no one wanted or to silently make then go away before they were even born
Neal ShustermanRead
They say you never know who's the real hero and who's the real coward until you're looking death in the face. I've always been afraid of plenty of things, but fear isn't what makes you a coward. It's how depraved your heart becomes when fear gets pumped through it.
Neal ShustermanRead
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We cannot cheat on DNA. We cannot get round photosynthesis. We cannot say I am not going to give a damn about phytoplankton. All these tiny mechanisms provide the preconditions of our planetary life. To say we do not care is to say in the most literal sense that "we choose death."
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I don't care much for facts, am not much interested in them, you can't stand a fact up, you've got to prop it up, and when you move to one side a little and look at it from that angle, it's not thick enough to cast a shadow in that direction.
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And therefore I looked down into the great pity of a person’s life on this earth. I don’t mean that we all end up dead, that’s not the great pity. I mean that he couldn’t tell me what he was dreaming, and I couldn’t tell him what was real.
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The ego doesn't know that the source of all energy is within you, so it seeks it outside.
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Had there not been five bad qualities, all the people would have been righteous. Contentment with ignorance; love for worldly life; miserliness inspite of much wealth; ostentation in (good) deeds; and pride in their own intelligence.
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It is not necessary to seek the truth among others which it is easy to obtain from the Church; since the apostles, like a rich man [depositing his money] in a bank, lodged in her hands most copiously all things pertaining to the truth.
Irenaeus Of LyonsRead