I'm not doing anything, and yet I'm also doing the most important thing a man can do: I'm listening to what I needed to hear from myself.
Paulo CoelhoRead
In order not to suffer, you had to renounce love. It was like putting out your own eyes in order not to see the bad things in life.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Avoiding love to escape pain only leads to greater loss.
This quote suggests that one must confront the pains that come with love rather than renounce it entirely. Coelho compares renouncing love to blinding oneself, implying that true living involves embracing both joy and sorrow rather than shutting oneself off from emotional experiences that are inherently part of life.
Themes
LoveSufferingPainLifeEmotion
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of vulnerability in relationships.
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Be still my heart; thou hast known worse than this.
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