It's hard to hold the hand of anyone who is reaching for the sky just to surrender
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the difficulty of supporting someone who is striving for greatness yet feels the pull of giving up.
Leonard Cohen's quote reflects the struggle of being in a relationship or friendship with someone who is ambitious and desires to achieve lofty goals but simultaneously grapples with the temptation to give in to despair. It suggests that while it is commendable to reach for dreams, the journey can be fraught with challenges that may lead one to consider surrendering, making it hard for others to offer support during such turbulent times.
In practice
This quote can be used during a motivational speech to highlight the resilience required in pursuing dreams.
What is most original in a man's nature is often that which is most desperate. Thus new systems are forced on the world by men who simply cannot bear the pain of living with what is. Creators care nothing for their systems except that they be unique. If Hitler had been born in Nazi Germany he wouldn't have been content to enjoy the atmosphere.
I always thought that poetry is the verdict that others give to a certain kind of writing. So to call yourself a poet is a kind of dangerous description. It's for others; it's for others to use.
Be With Me In The Phases Of My Work Because My Brain Feels Like It Has Been Whipped And I Yearn To Make A Small Perfect Thing Which Will Live In Your Morning Like Curious Static Through A President's Elegy Or A Nude Hunchback Acquiring A Tan On The Crowded Oily Beach.
I heard of a man who says words so beautifully that if he only speaks their name women give themselves to him. If I am dumb beside your body while silence blossoms like tumors on our lips it is because I hear a man climb stairs and clear his throat outside our door.
I think what we like about music - and what we like about art in general....is that enterprise that stops our minds from spinning. Because we're always all over the place. A good song, a good lyric is a movie: it will just focus and calm and confer significance on this completely bewildering reality that all of us live in.
Most of the time one is discouraged by the work, but now and again by some grace something stands out and invites you to work on it, to elaborate it or animate it in some way. It's a mysterious process.
Emotions will either serve or master, depending on who is in charge.
The world is his who can see through its pretension. What deafness, what stone-blind custom, what overgrown error you behold, is there only by sufferance,--by your sufferance. See it to be a lie, and you have already dealt it its mortal blow.
If you do what you were born to do, I think you will never grow old.
I divide the world into three Classes - The few who make things happen, the many who watch things happen, the overwhelming majority who have no notion of what happens.
Fits of depression come over the most of us. Usually cheerful as we may be, we must at intervals be cast down. The strong are not always vigorous, the wise not always ready, the brave not always courageous, and the joyous not always happy.
Authentic empowerment is the knowing that you are on purpose, doing God's work, peacefully and harmoniously.
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