Remember: the time you feel lonely is the time you most need to be by yourself. Life's cruelest irony.
Douglas CouplandRead
When someone tells you they’ve just bought a house, they might as well tell you they no longer have a personality. You can immediately assume so many things: that they’re locked into jobs they hate; that they’re broke; that they spend every night watching videos; that they’re fifteen pounds overweight; that they no longer listen to new ideas. It’s profoundly depressing.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on how homeownership can limit personal freedom and self-expression.
Douglas Coupland's quote critiques the societal expectations tied to homeownership, suggesting that people who buy houses may sacrifice their individuality and passions in favor of stability. It highlights the stereotypical assumptions made about homeowners, implying that this lifestyle can lead to a monotonous existence where joy and creativity are diminished.
Themes
HomeownershipPersonalitySocietyIndividualityFreedom
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about the pros and cons of buying a house versus renting.
More from Douglas Coupland
All quotes →...we're told by TV and Reader's Digest that a crisis will trigger massive personal change--and that those big changes will make the pain worthwhile. But from what he could see, big change almost never happens. People simply feel lost. They have no idea what to say or do or feel or think. they become messes and tend to remain messes.
Douglas CouplandRead
When the world throws you too much information, the only way you can stay sane or survive is to look for pattern recognition. Amidst all the blurs, is there a constellation that emerges, is there a straight line that's emerging?
Douglas CouplandRead
I'm not patient - and I'm getting more impatient as I get older - but I am disciplined about writing, and I want that on my tombstone: 'He wasn't patient, but he was disciplined.'
Douglas CouplandRead
If you waste five minutes of time a day, over the course of a year that adds up to one full work day. Think of five wasted minutes as a slow-release holiday drug. Savour it.
Douglas CouplandRead
You've seen what you've seen; you've felt what you've felt. Ideology is for people who don't trust their own experiences and perceptions of the world.
Douglas CouplandRead
Similar quotes
A few hours of mountain climbing make a blackguard and a saint two rather similar creatures.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
For this world that men have made, none of us is bad enough. For the world that made us, none is good enough.
Edward AbbeyRead
Wherever people feel safe — they will be indifferent.
Susan SontagRead
War forgets peace. Peace forgives war. War is the death of the life human. Peace is the birth of the Life Divine. Our vital passions want war. Our psychic emotions desire peace.
Sri ChinmoyRead
I haven't any language weak enough to depict the weakness of my spiritual life. If I weakened it enough it would cease to be language at all. As when you try to turn the gas-ring a little lower still, and it merely goes out.
C. S. LewisRead
The last official act of any government is to loot the treasury.
George WashingtonRead