Maggie, we're through with lies and liars in this house. Lock the door.
Tennessee WilliamsRead
Success and failure are equally disastrous.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Success and failure can both lead to negative consequences if one is overly attached to them.
Tennessee Williams points out that both success and failure can be equally perilous, suggesting that an obsession with either can lead to disappointment or despair. The idea is that a healthy perspective on outcomes is essential, as being too invested in one's achievements or failures can distort one's sense of self and lead to detrimental mental states.
Themes
SuccessFailureConsequencesPerspectiveAttachment
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech discussing the balance of success and failure.
More from Tennessee Williams
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The rest of my days I'm going to spend on the sea. And when I die, I'm going to die on the sea. You know what I shall die of? I shall die of eating an unwashed grape. One day out on the ocean I will die — with my hand in the hand of some nice-looking ship's doctor, a very young one with a small blond moustache and a big silver watch.
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Life is partly what we make it, and partly what it is made by the friends we choose.
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Somebody said once or wrote, once: 'We're all of us children in a vast kindergarten trying to spell God's name with the wrong alphabet blocks!
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