QuoteProject
A man cannot free himself from the past more easily than he can from his own body.
Andre Maurois
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote suggests that our past experiences and memories are as integral to our identity as our physical body.

Andre Maurois highlights the inescapability of our past in shaping who we are. Just as we cannot detach from our physical form, we cannot easily free ourselves from the memories, choices, and influences of our past, which continue to define our present and future.

Themes

PastIdentityMemoryFreedomExperience

In practice

Example use cases

Using this quote in a discussion about how our past experiences shape our current decisions.

More from Andre Maurois

The greedy search for money or success will almost always lead men into unhappiness. Why? Because that kind of life makes them depend upon things outside themselves.
Andre MauroisRead
It is better to teach a few things perfectly than many things indifferently...
Andre MauroisRead
Lost Illusion is the undisclosed title of every novel.
Andre MauroisRead
We can talk frankly about our defects only to those who recognise our qualities.
Andre MauroisRead
Men fear silence as they fear solitude, because both give them a glimpse of the terror of life's nothingness.
Andre MauroisRead
If you create an act, you create a habit. If you create a habit, you create a character. If you create a character, you create a destiny.
Andre MauroisRead

Similar quotes

Disgust with injustice may sharpen the desire for justice. Readers who don’t see this connection merely wish to be entertained, and I have neither skill nor desire to turn the agony of a people into entertainment.
Ayi Kwei ArmahRead
The diseased, anyway, are more interesting than the healthy. The words of the diseased, even those who can manage only a murmur, carry more weight than those of the healthy. Then, too, all healthy people will in the future know disease. That sense of time, ah, the diseased man’s sense of time, what treasure hidden in a desert cave. Then, too the diseased truly bite, whereas the healthy pretend to bite but really only snap at the air. Then, too, then, too, then, too.
Roberto BolanoRead
War is not in itself a condition so much as the symptom of a condition, that of international anarchy. If we wish to substitute for war the settlement of disputes by justice, we must first substitute for the condition of international anarchy a condition of international order
Alfred Hermann FriedRead
Be a good human being, a _x000D_ warmhearted, affectionate person. _x000D_ That is my fundamental belief.
Dalai LamaRead
Given the accelerating velocity of history, we should begin charting deliberately the next phase in its trajectory.
Zbigniew BrzezinskiRead
The reveries of youth, in which so much energy is wasted, are the yearnings of a Spirit made for what it has not found but must forever seek as an Ideal.
William Ellery ChanningRead

A little wisdom, now and then

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