Later, she would remember these years, and realize with astonishment that she had, by fifteen, decided on most of the assumptions she would carry for the rest of her life: that people were essentially not evil, that perfection was death, that life was better than order and a little chaos good for the soul. Most important, this life was all. Unfortunately, she forgot these things, and had to remember them the hard way.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the early life decisions and beliefs that shape an individual's worldview, as well as the journey of rediscovering those insights later in life.
Marilyn French's quote captures the essence of formative years where one develops core beliefs about life, humanity, and the balance between chaos and order. It highlights how these early assumptions can be forgotten over time, leading to a poignant realization later in life that the simplicity and truths perceived in youth can provide a guiding framework for adulthood, despite the challenges of forgetting them and having to relearn the lessons the hard way.
In practice
During a speech on personal growth, this quote is perfect to emphasize the importance of self-discovery.
S and M is only the expression in the bedroom of an oppressive-submissive relation which can happen also in the kitchen or at the factory, can happen between people of any gender. There is obviously something titillating about these relationships, but it isn't the sexual components that makes them ugly, they're uglier elsewhere. Nothing sexual is depraved. Only cruelty is depraved, and that's another matter.
To nourish children and raise them against odds is in any time, any place, more valuable than to fix bolts in cars or design nuclear weapons.
In a great gasp, puts her head in her hands again and cries as if her throat were a cave, as if the howling winds came from her belly, she cries like a storm that will never end.
Women are afraid in a world in which almost half the population bears the guise of the predator, in which no factor - age, dress, or color - distinguishes a man who will harm a woman from one who will not.
When they kept you out it was because you were black; when they let you in, it is because you are black. That's progress?
'I hate discussions of feminism that end up with who does the dishes,' she said. So do I. But at the end, there are always the damned dishes.
No man is your enemy, no man is your friend, every man is your teacher.
What you focus on grows, what you think about expands, and what you dwell upon determines your destiny.
The young physician starts life with 20 drugs for each disease, and the old physician ends life with one drug for 20 diseases.
Even without success, creative persons find joy in a job well done. Learning for its own sake is rewarding.
To be gentle and kind, modest and truthful, to be full of faith and integrity, doing no wrong is of God; goodness sheds a halo of loveliness around every person who possesses it, making their countenances beam with light, and their society desirable because of its excellency. They are loved of God, of holy angels, and of all the good earth, while they are hated, envied, admired, and feared by the wicked.
The easiest thing to be in the world is you. The most difficult thing to be is what other people want you to be. Don't let them put you in that position.
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