Eventually we all have to accept full and total responsibility for our actions, everything we have done, and have not done.
Interpretation
We must acknowledge and take responsibility for our choices and inactions in life.
This quote emphasizes the importance of personal accountability. Hubert Selby, Jr. suggests that as individuals, we must confront the consequences of our actions, both the things we have done and the opportunities we have failed to seize. Accepting responsibility is crucial to personal growth and understanding the impact of our decisions on ourselves and others.
In practice
In a self-improvement seminar, one might use this quote to encourage participants to take charge of their lives.
Being an artist doesnβt take much, just everything you got. Which means, of course, that as the process is giving you life, it is also bringing you closer to death. But itβs no big deal. They are one in the same and cannot be avoided or denied. So when I totally embrace this process, this life/death, and abandon myself to it, I transcend all this meaningless gibberish and hang out with the gods. It seems to me that that is worth the price of admission.
Obviously, I believe that to pursue the American Dream is not only futile but self-destructive because ultimately it destroys everything and everyone involved with it. By definition it must, because it nurtures everything except those things that are important: integrity, ethics, truth, our very heart and soul. Why? The reason is simple: because Life/life is giving, not getting.
There's a sorrow and pain in everyone's life, but every now and then there's a ray of light that melts the loneliness in your heart and brings comfort like hot soup and a soft bed.
Sometimes we have the absolute certainty there's something inside us that's so hideous and monstrous that if we ever search it out we won't be able to stand looking at it. But it's when we're willing to come face to face with that demon that we face the angel.
Wisdom and compassion should become the dominating influences that guide our thoughts , our words, and our actions.
Failure to plan brings barrenness and sterility. Fate brushes man with its wings, but we make our own fate largely.
The promises of this world are, for the most part, vain phantoms; and to confide in one's self, and become something of worth and value is the best and safest course.
I have not placed reading before praying because I regard it more important, but because, in order to pray aright, we must understand what we are praying for.
I have all my life long been lying in bed till noon; yet I tell all young men, and tell them with great sincerity, that nobody who does not rise early will ever do any good.
Only a stomach that rarely feels hungry scorns common things.
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