If you have the guts to be yourself, other people'll pay your price.
John UpdikeRead
Life is a video game. No matter how good you get, you are always zapped in the end.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Life is similar to a video game where despite our achievements, mortality is inevitable.
In this quote, John Updike expresses the idea that life, akin to a video game, is filled with challenges and opportunities for skill development. However, regardless of how accomplished one becomes, the finality of life—represented by being 'zapped'—reminds us of our mortality and the transient nature of existence.
Themes
LifeVideo GameMortalityChallengesExistence
In practice
Example use cases
During a motivational speech about embracing challenges in life.
More from John Updike
All quotes →Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that's the stuff life is made of. _x000D_ _x000D_ Suspect each moment, for it is a thief, tiptoeing away with more than it brings.
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Museums and bookstores should feel, I think, like vacant lots - places where the demands on us are our own demands, where the spirit can find exercise in unsupervised play.
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But it is just two lovers, holding hands and in a hurry to reach their car, their locked hands a starfish leaping through the dark.
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The reader knows the writer better than he knows himself; but the writer's physical presence is light from a star that has moved on.
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To guarantee the individual maximum freedom within a social frame of minimal laws ensures - if not happiness - its hopeful pursuit.
John UpdikeRead
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