Other people's lives come at us without a backstory most of the time. The present is like that.
Interpretation
We often observe others' lives without understanding their complexities and histories, much like how we perceive the present moment.
This quote by Tom Stoppard suggests that our understanding of other people's experiences is often superficial and devoid of context. Just as we perceive the present moment without its backstory, we tend to judge others without considering their life circumstances, leading to misunderstandings and a lack of empathy. It serves as a reminder to look deeper than surface appearances in both our interactions with others and our understanding of the present moment.
In practice
In a discussion about the importance of empathy during a workshop.
Love is - OK, it's 20 things, but it isn't 19. And I think that love reaches for something which is very, very deep in us and is very easily obscured, and is also very easily denied, which is the instinct towards the other person, other than toward the self.
A movie camera is like having someone you have a crush on watching you from afar - you pretend it's not there.
I once did a radio program with a famous materialist, that is to say a scientist who believed that absolutely everything was physical and that all emotions were reductive to little electrical impulses in your neurons. And I found that I didn't believe that. But what the emotions really are, I don't have an alternative theory.
One of the reasons why there are so many versions of Chekhov is that translations date in a way that the original doesn't; translations seem to be of their time.
A Chinaman of the T'ang Dynasty—and, by which definition, a philosopher—dreamed he was a butterfly, and from that moment he was never quite sure that he was not a butterfly dreaming it was a Chinese philosopher. Envy him; in his two-fold security.
Chekhov directors and Chekhov actors love working on his plays because there seems to be no end to what you can find out about the micro-narrative when you're investigating a text.
Through repentance the filth of our foul actions is washed away. After this, we participate in the Holy Spirit, not automatically, but according to the faith, humility and inner disposition of the repentance in which our soul is engaged. For this reason it is good to repent each day as the act of repentance is unending.
To live a pure unselfish life, one must count nothing as one's own in the midst of abundance.
There is no Master but the Master,” he said, “and QT-1 is his prophet.
If I'm going to be honest about it, I think men get to do this sort of thing all the time. You look at countless performances by great male actors who get to play the whole gamut of human emotions. Women aren't regularly allowed to do that, and I don't know why people are so frightened by it.
Concern for man and his fate must always form the chief interest of all technical endeavors. Never forget this in the midst of your diagrams and equations.
All lies are told with a straight face. It is truth that's said with a dismissive giggle.
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