Normal, in our house, is like a blanket too short for a bed--sometimes it covers you just fine, and other times it leaves you cold and shaking; and worst of all, you never know which of the two it's going to be.
Jodi PicoultRead
Most people who offer their help do it to make themselves feel better, not us. To be honest, I don't blame them. It's superstition: If you give assistance to the family in need... if you throw salt over your shoulder... if you don't step on the cracks, then maybe you'll be immune. Maybe you'll be able to convince yourself that this could never happen to you.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that people often help others more for their own emotional benefit than out of pure altruism.
Jodi Picoult's quote explores the idea that many acts of assistance are motivated by the giver's desire to feel better about themselves rather than a genuine concern for the recipient's situation. This highlights a common psychological tendency to engage in helping behavior as a means of preserving one's own sense of security and self-worth, while also hinting at the superstitions people hold to distance themselves from misfortune and tragedy that befall others.
In practice
In a discussion about the motivations behind charitable actions.
Normal, in our house, is like a blanket too short for a bed--sometimes it covers you just fine, and other times it leaves you cold and shaking; and worst of all, you never know which of the two it's going to be.
Whether it was power they sought, or revenge, or love-well, those were all just different forms of hunger. The bigger the hole inside you, the more desperate you became to fill it.
she told me she'd be a phoenix." The image of the mythical creature rising from the ashes glitters in my mind. "They don't really exist." "She said that depends on whether or not there's someone who can see them.
for 100,000 (dollars), you [can] flatten a house with a wrecking ball. Imagine how much less it [takes] to destroy something than it [does] to build it in the first place.
But if you seek forgiveness, doesn't that automatically mean you cannot be a monster? By definition, doesn't that desperation make you human again?
when you [lose someone], it feels like the hole in your gum when a tooth falls out. You can chew, you can eat, you have plenty of other teeth, but your tongue keeps going back to that empty place, where all nerves are still a little raw
To be moral, correct, and virtuous is to be obedient to an old established law and custom.
The center that I cannot find is known to my unconscious mind.
If I devote myself to other pursuits and contemplations, I must first see, at least, that I do not pursue them sitting upon another man's shoulders. I must get off him first, that he may pursue his contemplations too.
We cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself.
The man who leaves money to charity in his will is only giving away what no longer belongs to him
Slip into the gap, have the desire, detach from the outcome, and let the universe take care of the details.
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