QuoteProject
I've learned that every human being, with or without disabilities, needs to strive to do their best, and by striving for happiness you will arrive at happiness. For us, you see, having autism is normal-so we can't know for sure what your 'normal' is even like. But so long as we can learn to love ourselves, I'm not sure how much it matters whether we're normal or autistic.
Naoki Higashida
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The pursuit of happiness and self-acceptance is essential for everyone, regardless of their differences.

This quote emphasizes the importance of striving for personal happiness and self-love, suggesting that the concept of 'normal' is subjective and varies from person to person. The speaker conveys that individuals, including those with autism, should focus on their own unique paths to fulfillment and self-acceptance rather than conforming to societal standards of normalcy.

Themes

HappinessSelf-AcceptanceAutismNormalcyLove

In practice

Example use cases

This quote could be used in a presentation about inclusivity and acceptance for individuals with disabilities.

More from Naoki Higashida

People with autism never, ever feel at ease, wherever we are. Because of this, we wander off - or run away - in search of some location where we do feel at ease. While we're on this search, it doesn't occur to us to consider how or where we're going to end up. We get swallowed up by the illusion that unless we can find a place to belong, we are going to be all alone in the world.
Naoki HigashidaRead
Criticizing people, winding them up, making idiots of them or fooling them doesn't make people with autism laugh. What makes us smile from the inside is seeing something beautiful, or a memory makes us laugh. This generally happens when there's nobody watching us. And at night, on our own, we might burst out laughing underneath the duvet, or roar with later in an empty room ... When we don't need to think about other people or anything else, that's when we wear our aural expressions.
Naoki HigashidaRead
When you see an object, it seems that you see it as an entire thing first, and only afterwards do its details follow on. But for people with autism, the details jump straight out at us first of all, and then only gradually, detail by detail, does the whole image float up into focus.
Naoki HigashidaRead

Similar quotes

The discretion of a man makes him slow to anger. It is his glory to overlook an offense.
SolomonRead
Some of the animals outsee man, outsmell him, outhear him, outrun him, outswim him, because their lives depend more upon these special powers than his does; but he can outwit them all because he has the resourcefulness of reason and is at home in many different fields.
John BurroughsRead
Awareness, not deprivation, informs what you eat. Presence, not shame, changes how you see yourself and what you rely on.
Geneen RothRead
This fellow is wise enough to play the fool; And to do that well craves a kind of wit: He must observe their mood on whom he jests, The quality of persons, and the time, And, like the haggard, check at every feather That comes before his eye. This is a practise As full of labour as a wise man's art For folly that he wisely shows is fit; But wise men, folly-fall'n, quite taint their wit.
William ShakespeareRead
There is only one proof of ability - action.
Marie Von Ebner-EschenbachRead
He is the best man who, when making his plans, fears and reflects on everything that can happen to him, but in the moment of action is bold.
HerodotusRead

A little wisdom, now and then

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

Quote by Naoki Higashida | QuoteProject