QuoteProject
Instead of a dedicated room, my best trigger is the actual habit of reading over the texts from the day before. Marking. Changing. Fussing. This ritual amounts to a habit of trust. Trust that I can make it better. That if I keep trying, I will come closer to something true.
Mona Simpson
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote emphasizes the importance of reflection and trust in personal growth through continuous effort.

Mona Simpson highlights the value of revisiting past work as a means to improve and refine one's thoughts and ideas. This practice not only reinforces the habit of reflection but also nurtures trust in one’s ability to develop and approach the truth, suggesting that persistent effort and self-assessment lead to greater understanding and clarity.

Themes

ReflectionTrustHabitsImprovementGrowth

In practice

Example use cases

In a book club meeting to discuss the importance of revisiting texts for deeper understanding.

More from Mona Simpson

Even more than we want good love for ourselves, we want it for our children, those vulnerable satellites of our hearts that we send, unsteady, into the world.
Mona SimpsonRead
Even as a feminist, my whole life I'd been waiting for a man to love who could love me. For decades, I'd thought that man would be my father. When I was 25, I met that man, and he was my brother.
Mona SimpsonRead
Writers collect stories of rituals: John Cheever putting on a jacket and tie to go down to the basement, where he kept a desk near the boiler room. Keats buttoning up his clean white shirt to write in, after work.
Mona SimpsonRead
We come into the world whole, all of us, but we don't know that, don't know that life will be taking large chunks out of us, forever.
Mona SimpsonRead

Similar quotes

Grace is what matters. In anything. Especially life, especially growth, tragedy, pain, love, death. About people, that's what matters. That's a quality I admire very greatly. It keeps you from reaching for the gun too quickly; it keeps you from destroying things too foolishly; it sort of keeps you alive and keeps you open for more understanding.
Jeff BuckleyRead
We want to get 80%-85% of predictions right, not 100%. Or else we calibrated our estimates in the wrong way.
Nate SilverRead
People live through such pain only once. Pain comes again—but it finds a tougher surface.
Willa CatherRead
I try to teach through my opinions, through my speeches, how wrong it is to judge people on the basis of what they look like, color of their skin, whether they're men or women.
Ruth Bader GinsburgRead
I remember my first visit with my guru. He had shown that he read my mind. So I looked at the grass and I thought, 'My god, he's going to know all the things I don't want people to know.' I was really embarrassed. Then I looked up and he was looking directly at me with unconditional love.
Ram DassRead
Understanding comes with life. As a man grows he sees life and death, he is happy and sad, he works, plays, meets people - sometimes it takes a lifetime to acquire understanding, because in the end understanding simply means having sympathy for people.
Rudolfo AnayaRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.