You live in a deranged age, more deranged that usual, because in spite of great scientific and technological advances, man has not the faintest idea of who he is or what he is doing.
Walker PercyRead
They all think any minute I'm going to commit suicide. What a joke. The truth of course is the exact opposite: suicide is the only thing that keeps me alive. Whenever everything else fails, all I have to do is consider suicide and in two seconds I'm as cheerful as a nitwit. But if I could not kill myself -- ah then, I would. I can do without nembutal or murder mysteries but not without suicide.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the paradoxical nature of suicidal thoughts, suggesting that contemplating them brings a sense of relief and cheer to the speaker.
Walker Percy’s quote explores the complex relationship between suicidal ideation and the value of life. It presents the idea that the mere consideration of suicide can paradoxically provide a sense of comfort and happiness, as it highlights the speaker's control over their existence. This reflection illuminates the depth of despair that can accompany mental anguish, while also revealing a glimmer of hope through the capability to choose life over death.
Themes
SuicideMental HealthParadoxExistenceDespairHope
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a mental health awareness speech to illustrate the complexities of suicidal thoughts.
More from Walker Percy
All quotes →It is possible, however, that the artist is both thin-skinned and prophetic and, like the canary lowered into the mine shaft to test the air, has caught a whiff of something lethal.
Walker PercyRead
Why is it that one can look at a lion or a planet or an owl or at someone's finger as long as one pleases, but looking into the eyes of another person is, if prolonged past a second, a perilous affair?
Walker PercyRead
We love those who know the worst of us and don't turn their faces away.
Walker PercyRead
Before, I wandered as a diversion. Now I wander seriously and sit and read as a diversion.
Walker PercyRead
Since grief only aggravates your loss, grieve not for what is past.
Walker PercyRead
Similar quotes
I went inside my heart to see how it was. Something there makes me hear the whole world weeping.
RumiRead
The most appropriate type of daily life for me was a day-by-day world destruction; peace was the most difficult and abnormal state to live in.
Yukio MishimaRead
Spirit is the vast stillness which is behind all created things.
Paramahansa YoganandaRead
For what am I to myself without You, but a guide to my own downfall?
Saint AugustineRead
Not a whole lot of us are wrestling somebody for a canned food item in the supermarket or having an ax fight in the jungle clearing. Instead, we sit and think about taxes and the ozone layer.
Robert SapolskyRead
So which is the lie? Hard or soft? Silence or time?
David Foster WallaceRead