Sadness is more or less like a head cold - with patience, it passes. Depression is like cancer.
Barbara KingsolverRead
At some point in my life I'd honestly hoped love would rescue me from the cold, drafty castle I lived in. But at another point, much earlier I think, I'd quietly begun to hope for nothing at all in the way of love, so as not to be disappointed. It works. It gets to be a habit.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects a journey of hope and emotional survival regarding love.
In this quote, Barbara Kingsolver explores the conflicting emotions surrounding love, initially expressing a longing for love to bring warmth and rescue from loneliness. However, she later reveals a protective mechanism of lowering expectations to avoid disappointment, illustrating how habits of emotional defense can develop when faced with the realities of love and hope.
Themes
LoveHopeDisappointmentEmotionalJourney
In practice
Example use cases
This quote is perfect for a discussion on the complexities of love at a relationship workshop.
More from Barbara Kingsolver
All quotes →Children can be your heartache. But that doesn't matter, you have to go on and have them . . . it works out.
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I'm of a fearsome mind to throw my arms around every living librarian who crosses my path, on behalf of the souls they never knew they saved.
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I did it to win love, and to prove myself capable. Not to move mountains. In my opinions, mountains don't move. They only look changed when you look down on them from great height.
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Memory is a complicated thing, a relative to truth, but not its twin.
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Empathy is really the opposite of spiritual meanness. It's the capacity to understand that every war is both won and lost. And that someone else's pain is as meaningful as your own.
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