It seems to me, that if people only knew how hard it was for me to endure life, they would find it easier to forgive me for all the wrong things I’ve done and all the good things that I have failed to do. And they would still find a little compassion within them to pity me.
Interpretation
The quote expresses the struggle of enduring life's challenges and the desire for compassion from others despite one's failures.
Ivo Andric's quote highlights the burdens individuals carry in their lives and how these struggles often go unseen. It suggests that if others were aware of the hardships a person faces, they might be more forgiving of their mistakes and more inclined to empathize with their situation, illustrating a profound understanding of human vulnerability and the complexities of moral judgment.
In practice
In a speech about mental health awareness, this quote can highlight the unseen battles many face.
Of everything that man erects and builds in his urge for living nothing is in my eyes better and more valuable than bridges. They are more important than houses, more sacred than shrines. Belonging to everyone and being equal to everyone, useful, always built with a sense, on the spot where most human needs are crossing, they are more durable than other buildings and they do not serve for anything secret or bad.
Forgetfulness heals everything and song is the most beautiful manner of forgetting, for in song man feels only what he loves.
To be a man, to have been born without knowing it or wanting it, to be thrown into the ocean of existence, to be obliged to swim, to exist; to have an identity; to resist the pressure and shocks from the outside and the unforeseen and unforeseeable acts - one's own and those of others - which so often exceed one's capacities? And what is more, to endure one's own thoughts about all this: in a word, to be human.
That wild beast which lives in man and does not dare to show itself until the barriers of law and custom have been removed, was now set free.
Lands of great discoveries are also lands of great injustices.
Between the fear that something would happen and the hope that still it wouldn't, there is much more space than one thinks. On that narrow, hard, bare and dark space a lot of us spend their lives.
Now, five years is nothing in a man's life except when he is very young and very old... - Wang Lung
Mindfulness is a quality that's always there. It's an illusion that there's a meditation and post-meditation period, which I always find amusing, because you're either mindful or you're not.
When there's no place for the scalpel, words are the surgeon's only tool.
The proof of spiritual maturity is not how pure you are but awareness of your impurity. That very awareness opens the door to grace.
Know thy self, know thy enemy. A thousand battles, a thousand victories.
Meditation practice is like piano scales, basketball drills, ballroom dance class. Practice requires discipline; it can be tedious; it is necessary. After you have practiced enough, you become more skilled at the art form itself. You do not practice to become a great scale player or drill champion. You practice to become a musician or athlete. Likewise, one does not practice meditation to become a great meditator. We meditate to wake up and live, to become skilled at the art of living.
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