Was it always my nature to take a bad time and block out the good times, until any success became an accident and failure seemed the only truth?
Lillian HellmanRead
It is not good to see people who have been pretending strength all their lives lose it even for a minute.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the sadness in witnessing those who feign strength show vulnerability.
Lillian Hellman's quote reflects on the emotional impact of seeing individuals who have spent their lives projecting strength and resilience suddenly reveal their weaknesses. It emphasizes that such moments of vulnerability can be painful not only for the individual but also for those who have known them, as it contradicts the facade they have meticulously maintained.
Themes
StrengthVulnerabilityRelationshipsEmotionsHuman Experience
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about mental health awareness, you could use this quote to highlight the invisible struggles many face.
More from Lillian Hellman
All quotes βIf I had to give young writers advice, I would say don't listen to writers talking about writing or themselves.
Lillian HellmanRead
It is best to act with confidence, no matter how little right you have to it.
Lillian HellmanRead
If you believe, as the Greeks did, that man is at the mercy of the gods, then you write tragedy. The end is inevitable from the beginning. But if you believe that man can solve his own problems and is at nobody's mercy, then you will probably write melodrama.
Lillian HellmanRead
Nobody knows what you want except you. And nobody will be as sorry as you if you don't get it. Wanting some other way to live is proof enough of deserving it. Having it is hard work, but not having it is sheer hell.
Lillian HellmanRead
Failure in the theater is more dramatic and uglier than any other form of writing. It costs so much, you feel so guilty.
Lillian HellmanRead
Similar quotes
I hate who steals my solitude, without really offer me in exchange company.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
We were both very much the same. We were both very impulsive. We both loved life. We both loved shopping. We both had a love of clothes, obviously, because he was the designer that I kind of wore forever and ever.
Elton JohnRead
The marriage state was designed to complete the sum of human happiness in this life. It sometimes proves otherwise, but this is owing to the parties themselves, who either rush into it without due consideration or fail in point of discretion in their conduct towards each other afterwards.
Samuel AdamsRead
We can talk frankly about our defects only to those who recognise our qualities.
Andre MauroisRead
The United States-Israeli relationship is based on the broadest conception of American national interest in which our two nations are bound forever together by common democratic values and traditions. This will never change.
Colin PowellRead
I learned to forgive myself, and that enabled me to forgive my mother as a person.
Amy TanRead