Try any goddam thing you like, no matter how boringly normal or outrageous. If it works, fine. If it doesn't, toss it. Toss it even if you love it.
Stephen KingRead
Let me tell you something my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Hope can be both a motivating force and a source of pain when unfulfilled.
In this quote, Stephen King emphasizes the dual nature of hope. While it can inspire and provide a sense of purpose, it can also lead to despair and madness when expectations are not met. Hope becomes dangerous when it keeps individuals tethered to unrealistic dreams, creating a cycle of longing and disappointment.
Themes
HopeDangerInsanityExpectationsDisappointment
In practice
Example use cases
During a motivational speech about dealing with setbacks and unfulfilled dreams.
More from Stephen King
All quotes →Eddie discovered one of his childhood's great truths. Grownups are the real monsters, he thought.
Stephen KingRead
Hairstyles change, and skirt lengths, and slang, but high school administrations? Never.
Stephen KingRead
Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the reader’s.
Stephen KingRead
That's the day's business. Thinking. Thinking and isolation, because it doesn't matter if you pass the time of day with someone or not; in the end, you're alone. He seemed to have put in as many miles in his brain as he had with his feet. The thoughts kept coming and there was no way to deny them.
Stephen KingRead
Late last night and the night before, tommyknockers, tommyknockers knocking on my door. I wanna go out, don't know if I can 'cuz I'm so afraid of the tommyknocker man.
Stephen KingRead
Similar quotes
One has only the choice between God and idolatry. There is no other possibility. For the faculty of worship is in us, and it is either directed somewhere into this world, or into another.
Simone WeilRead
Leave the Irreparable Past in His hands, and step out into the Irresistible Future with Him.
Oswald ChambersRead
I don't think we are going to become extinct. We're very clever and extremely resourceful - and we will find ways of preserving ourselves, of that I'm sure. But whether our lives will be as rich as they are now is another question.
David AttenboroughRead
The planter, the farmer, the mechanic, and the laborer...form the great body of the people of the United States they are the bone and sinew of the country men who love liberty and desire nothing but equal rights and equal laws.
Andrew JacksonRead
Ancient Egyptians believed that upon death they would be asked two questions and their answers would determine whether they could continue their journey in the afterlife. The first question was, 'Did you bring joy?' The second was, 'Did you find joy?
Leo BuscagliaRead
Death, after all, is the common expectation from birth. Neither heroes nor cowards can escape it.
Ellis PetersRead