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We are fated to love one another; we hardly exist outside our love, we are just animals without it, with a birth and a death and constant fear between. Our love has lifted us up , out of the dreadfulness of merely living.
John Updike
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Love is essential to our existence, shaping our very being and providing meaning beyond mere survival.

In this quote, John Updike expresses the profound impact of love on human existence, suggesting that love is what truly defines us. Without love, he argues, we are reduced to mere animals, experiencing only the cycle of life and fear. Love elevates us from the mundane and gives purpose to our lives, making it an intrinsic part of our humanity.

Themes

LoveExistenceHumanityPurposeFear

In practice

Example use cases

In a wedding speech, one might say, 'As John Updike eloquently stated, we are fated to love one another, and it's this love that brings us together today.'

More from John Updike

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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.
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