Sadness is more or less like a head cold - with patience, it passes. Depression is like cancer.
Barbara KingsolverRead
you can't really know the person standing before you, because always there is some missing piece
Interpretation
What this quote means
Understanding others is complex, as everyone carries hidden aspects of themselves.
This quote emphasizes the idea that no matter how well we think we know someone, there are always facets of their personality or experiences that remain hidden to us. It suggests that each person has their own story, thoughts, and feelings that may not be visible or accessible, leading to an incomplete understanding of who they truly are.
Themes
UnderstandingRelationshipsPeopleHiddenComplexity
In practice
Example use cases
During a discussion about interpersonal relationships, one might say, 'As Barbara Kingsolver wisely noted, you can't really know the person standing before you, because always there is some missing piece.'
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.
Barbara KingsolverRead
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.
Barbara KingsolverRead
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.
Barbara KingsolverRead
Memory is a complicated thing, a relative to truth, but not its twin.
Barbara KingsolverRead
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.
Barbara KingsolverRead
Similar quotes
You can't make homes out of human beings.
Warsan ShireRead
I feel most people’s sexuality is enormously complicated. That’s what it means to be human. Wouldn’t it be great if we honored that complexity rather than turn it into gossip or ridicule? Wouldn’t it be great if we accepted sexual diversity, in ourselves and others, without condemning it?
Janet JacksonRead
Not gay, just never met the right woman.
Neil GaimanRead
Plain women know more about men than beautiful ones do. But beautiful women don't need to know about men. It's the men who have to know about beautiful women.
Katharine HepburnRead
Everything he'd done with regard to her in the last three years had been calculated to foreclose the intensely personal sort of talks they'd had when he was younger: to get her to shut up, to train her to contain herself, to make her stop pestering him with her overfull heart and her uncensored self. And now that the training was complete and she was obediently trivial with him, he felt bereft of her and wanted to undo it.
Jonathan FranzenRead
Maybe I`m getting to the age when I`m starting to be senile or nostalgic or both, but people are so angry now. You used to be able to disagree with people and still be friends. Now you hear these talk shows, and everyone who believes differently from you is a moron and an idiot - both on the Right and the Left.
Clint EastwoodRead