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Remembering bred its own peculiar sorrow. It seemed so unfair: that time should render both sadness and happiness into a source of pain.
Rohinton Mistry
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Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote reflects on the bittersweet nature of memories, where happiness can also bring sadness.

Rohinton Mistry's quote explores the complex emotions tied to memories, suggesting that recalling joyful moments can lead to pain. It highlights the duality of time, where the act of remembering can simultaneously evoke happiness and sorrow, presenting an unfair reality in the human experience of nostalgia.

Themes

MemorySorrowHappinessTimeBittersweet

In practice

Example use cases

Discussing the complexities of nostalgia during a psychology class.

More from Rohinton Mistry

...the face has limited space. My mother used to say, if you fill your face with laughing, there will be no more room for crying.
Rohinton MistryRead
But nobody ever forgot anything, not really, though sometimes they pretended, when it suited them. Memories were permanent. Sorrowful ones remained sad even with the passing of time, yet happy ones could never be recreated - not with the same joy. Remembering bred its own peculiar sorrow. It seemed so unfair: that time should render both sadness and happiness into a source of pain.
Rohinton MistryRead
What folly made young people, even those in middle age, think they were immortal? How much better, their lives, if they could remember the end. Carrying your death with you every day would make it hard to waste time on unkindness and anger and bitterness, on anything petty. That was the secret: remembering your dying time, in order to keep the stupid and the ugly out of your living time.
Rohinton MistryRead
If there was an abundance of misery in the world, there was also sufficient joy, yes - as long as one knew where to look for it.
Rohinton MistryRead
There was no such thing as perfect privacy, life was a perpetual concert-hall recital with a captive audience.
Rohinton MistryRead
Money can buy the necessary police order. Justice is sold to the highest bidder
Rohinton MistryRead

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