How glorious it is - and also how painful - to be an exception.
Interpretation
Being unique can bring both joy and suffering.
This quote reflects the duality of exceptionalism, highlighting that while being different and standing out can be a source of pride and glory, it can also lead to feelings of isolation and pain. The struggle of being an exception to the norm reminds us that uniqueness comes with its own set of challenges and rewards.
In practice
This quote could be used in a graduation speech to inspire students to embrace their uniqueness.
Alas, everything that men say to one another is alike; the ideas they exchange are almost always the same, in their conversation. But inside all those isolated machines, what hidden recesses, what secret compartments! It is an entire world that each one carries within him, an unknown world that is born and dies in silence! What solitudes all these human bodies are!
You’re like a lighthouse shining beside the sea of humanity, motionless: all you can see is your own reflection in the water. You’re alone, so you think it’s a vast, magnificent panorama. You haven’t sounded the depths. You simply believe in the beauty of God’s creation. But I have spent all this time in the water, diving deep into the howling ocean of life, deeper than anyone. While you were admiring the surface, I saw the shipwrecks, the drowned bodies, the monsters of the deep
What I need is a woman who is something, anything: either very beautiful or very kind or in the last resort very wicked; very witty or very stupid, but something.
The blood of my motherland waters a magic plant that cures all ills. That plant is art, and sometimes art needs corruption as a kind of fertilizer
life is a deep sleep of which love is the dream
The only true language in the world is a kiss.
Look Upon Every Experience You've Ever Had ... as Having Been Sent to You for Your Benefit
For the one and only time I caught a glimpse of a great heart as well as of a great brain.
Having learned something, we tend to cling to that belief, even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. New information comes in all time, and the thing we ought to be thinking about doing is changing our beliefs as that new information comes in.
A little thought and a little kindness are often worth more than a great deal of money.
That person who is the hardest to forgive is the one who can teach you the greatest lessons. When you love yourself enough to rise above the old situation, then understanding and forgiveness will be easy. And you'll be free.
Sin forsaken is one of the best evidences of sin forgiven.
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