If two lives join, there is oft a scar. They are one and one, with a shadowy third; One near one is too far.
Robert BrowningRead
Since there my past life lies, why alter it?
Interpretation
The quote suggests that one should accept and not change their past, as it is an integral part of their current existence.
Robert Browning's quote reflects the acceptance of oneβs past as an immutable part of their identity. By stating 'why alter it?', Browning implies that the past shapes who we are today and attempting to change it is futile; instead, we should embrace our life's journey.
In practice
In a personal development seminar, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of accepting one's history to move forward.
If two lives join, there is oft a scar. They are one and one, with a shadowy third; One near one is too far.
Tis Man's to explore up and down, inch by inch, with the taper his reason.
I think, am sure, a brother's love exceeds_x000D_ _x000D_ All the world's loves in its unworldliness.
I dare not so honor my mere wishes and prayers as to put them for a moment beside your noble acts; but this know, I would rather submit to the worst of deaths, so far as pain goes, than have a single dog or cat tortured on the pretence of sparing me a twinge or two.
How well I know what I mean to do When the long dark Autumn evenings come, And where, my soul, is thy pleasant hue? With the music of all thy voices, dumb In lifeβs November too! I shall be found by the fire, suppose, Oβer a great wise book as beseemeth age, While the shutters flap as the cross-wind blows, And I turn the page, and I turn the page, Not verse now, only prose!
How good is life, the mere living!
Boredom is an instrument of social control. Power is the power to impose boredom, to command stasis, to combine this stasis with anguish. The real tedium, deep tedium, is seasoned with terror and with death.
It's your fiction that interests me. Your studies of the interplay of human motives and emotion.
Disobedience, in the eyes of any one who has read history, is man's original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.
A sorrow's crown of sorrow is remembering happier times.
After all, you put a lot into creating a universe and everything that goes with it, and it seems a shame to use it only once.
If we look at the world with a love of life, the world will reveal its beauty to us.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.