Experiences aren't given to us to be 'got over,' otherwise they would hardly be experiences.
Interpretation
Life experiences are valuable lessons meant to be learned from, not merely endured.
This quote by Penelope Fitzgerald emphasizes that experiences, especially challenging ones, are integral to our personal growth and understanding. Rather than viewing these moments as obstacles to be overcome quickly, we should embrace them as opportunities for deeper insight and wisdom that shape who we are.
In practice
In a motivational speech about resilience, one could say, 'As Penelope Fitzgerald put it, experiences aren't given to us to be 'got over,' but to be learned from.'
More than that, I believe that the grass is green because green is restful to the human eye, that the sky is blue to give us an idea of the infinite. And that blood is red so that murder will be more easily detected and criminals will be brought to justice. Yes, and I believe that I shall live forever, but I shall live without reason.
I have remained true to my deepest convictions. I mean the courage of those who are born to be defeated, the weaknesses of the strong, and the tragedy of misunderstandings and missed opportunities, which I have done my best to treat as comedy—for otherwise how can we manage to bear it?
However, no two people see the external world in exactly the same way. To every separate person a thing is what he thinks it is - in other words, not a thing, but a think.
Everybody knows how fallible memory can sometimes be. You remember certain fragments precisely, but as soon as you try to join the fragments together, for a story, there is a certain - not falsification, but a shifting.
Dripping water hollows out a stone
Find the sweetness in your own heart, then you may find the sweetness in every heart.
So my idea of neurotic is spending too much time trying to correct a wrong. When I feel that I'm doing that, then I snap out of it.
I want to be famous in the way a pulley is famous, or a buttonhole, not because it did anything spectacular, but because it never forgot what it could do.
It begins with skepticism. The history of human folly, and our own susceptibility to illusions and fallacies, tell us that men and women are fallible.
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