QuoteProject
Sorrow has the fortunate peculiarity that it preys upon itself. It dies of starvation. Since it is essentially an interruption of habits, it can be replaced by new habits. Constituting, as it does, a void, it is soon filled up by a real horror vacuum.
August Strindberg
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Sorrow can be self-consuming and is often replaced by new habits.

This quote by August Strindberg reflects on the nature of sorrow, suggesting that it is a self-perpetuating feeling that eventually diminishes when neglected. Since sorrow disrupts our usual patterns, it leaves a void that can be filled by new experiences or habits, implying that we have the power to overcome and transform our emotional states.

Themes

SorrowHabitsEmotionsTransformationVoid

In practice

Example use cases

During a motivational speech to inspire resilience in difficult times.

More from August Strindberg

It's wonderful how, the moment you talk about God and love, your voice becomes hard, and your eyes fill with hatred. No, Margret, you certainly haven't the true faith.
August StrindbergRead
That is the thankless position of the father in the family - the provider for all, and the enemy of all.
August StrindbergRead
Now I know the full power of evil. It makes ugliness seem beautiful and goodness seem ugly and weak.
August StrindbergRead
I see the playwright as a lay preacher peddling the ideas of his time in popular form.
August StrindbergRead
On the much revered family of North American mythology - and a metaphor for the Ruling Alliance:_x000D_ _x000D_ Sacred family! .... The supposed home of all the virtues, where innocent children are tortured into their first falsehoods, where wills are broken by parental tyranny, and self-respect smothered by crowded, jostling egos.
August StrindbergRead
Oh, I have loved him too much to feel no hate for him.
August StrindbergRead

Similar quotes

Expectations are a form of first-class truth: If people believe it, it's true.
Bill GatesRead
It is unthinkable in the twentieth century to fail to distinguish between what constitutes an abominable atrocity that must be prosecuted and what constitutes that "past" which "ought not to be stirred up.
Aleksandr SolzhenitsynRead
[God] is perfect not only insofar as He is absolute perfection, defining perfection in Himself and from His singular existence and total perfection, but also because He is far beyond being so. He sets a boundary to the boundless and in His total unity He rises above all limitation. He is neither contained nor comprehended by anything. He reaches out to everything and beyond everything and does so with unfailing generosity and unstinted activity.
Pope DionysiusRead
If we had the power of ten Shakespeares or a dozen Mozarts, we could not produce anything half so marvelous as one ordinary human child.
Edward AbbeyRead
Equity feminism is a moral doctrine about equal treatment that makes no commitments regarding open empirical issues in psychology or biology.
Steven PinkerRead
Meditation, then, is not so much a part of this or that particular religion, but rather part of the universal spiritual culture of all humankind--an effort to bring awareness to bear on all aspects of life. It is, in other words, part of what has been called the perennial philosophy.
Ken WilberRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.