We're our own dragons as well as our own heroes, and we have to rescue ourselves from ourselves.
Tom RobbinsRead
For most people, self-awareness and self-pity blossom simultaneously in early adolescence. It's about that time that we start viewing the world as something other than a whoop-de-doo playground, we start to experience personally how threatening it can be, how cruel and unjust. At the very moment when we become, for the first time, both introspective and socially conscientious, we receive the bad news that the world, by and large, doesn't give a rat's ass.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Self-awareness often arises during adolescence, bringing both insight and disappointment about the world.
In this quote, Tom Robbins reflects on the dual emergence of self-awareness and self-pity in early adolescence. He suggests that as young individuals begin to understand themselves and the complexities of social dynamics, they also confront the harsh reality that the world can be unforgiving and indifferent to their feelings and experiences. This transition marks a significant shift from a carefree childhood to a more nuanced understanding of life's challenges.
Themes
Self-AwarenessAdolescenceSocietyIntrospectionCrueltyDisappointment
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used during a discussion about teenage development in a psychology class.
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All quotes →There are many things worth living for, a few things worth dying for, and nothing worth killing for.
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The Divine was beyond description, beyond knowing, beyond comprehension. To say that the Divine was Creation divided by Destruction was as close as one could come to definition. But the puny of soul, the dull of wit, weren't content with that. They wanted to hang a face on the Divine. They went so far as to attribute petty human emotions - anger, jealousy, etc - to it, not stopping to realize that if God were a being, even a supreme being, our prayers would have bored him to death long ago.
Tom RobbinsRead
On their sofas of spice and feathers, the concubines also slept fretfully. In those days the Earth was still flat, and people dreamed often of falling over edges.
Tom RobbinsRead
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