If you have the guts to be yourself, other people'll pay your price.
John UpdikeRead
We do survive every moment, after all, except the last one.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the inevitability of death and the resilience of living through each moment until the end.
John Updike's quote suggests that life is a continuous series of moments, each of which we endure and experience. The phrase draws attention to the only moment we do not survive, which is the final moment of life, emphasizing the transient nature of existence and the importance of cherishing every moment we have.
In practice
In a reflective speech about the resilience of the human spirit, one could use this quote to emphasize the importance of living in the moment.
If you have the guts to be yourself, other people'll pay your price.
Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that's the stuff life is made of. _x000D_ _x000D_ Suspect each moment, for it is a thief, tiptoeing away with more than it brings.
Museums and bookstores should feel, I think, like vacant lots - places where the demands on us are our own demands, where the spirit can find exercise in unsupervised play.
But it is just two lovers, holding hands and in a hurry to reach their car, their locked hands a starfish leaping through the dark.
The reader knows the writer better than he knows himself; but the writer's physical presence is light from a star that has moved on.
To guarantee the individual maximum freedom within a social frame of minimal laws ensures - if not happiness - its hopeful pursuit.
I've been praying to God to show me how to forgive myself. Because... maybe... that's the thing I've been searching for.
Sometimes I wish I could go back in time, sit down with myself and explain that things were going to be okay, that everybody loses ground sometimes and it doesnβt mean anything. Itβs the way life works. This is hard to understand in the moment. You get to thinking about the girl who rejected you, the job you got fired from, the test you failed, and you lose sight of the big picture β the fact that life has a beautiful way of remaking itself every few weeks.
We're a lukewarm people for all our feast days and hard work. Not much touches us, but we long to be touched. We lie awake at night willing the darkness to part and show us a vision. Our children frighten us in their intimacy, but we make sure they grow up like us. Lukewarm like us. On a night like this, hands and faces hot, we can believe that tomorrow will show us angels in jars and that the well-known woods will suddenly reveal another path.
Like a morning dream, life becomes more and more bright the longer we live, and the reason of everything appears more clear. What has puzzled us before seems less mysterious, and the crooked paths look straighter as we approach the end.
Your life is like a play with several acts. Some of the characters who enter have short roles to play, others, much larger. Some are villains and others are good guys. But all of them are necessary; otherwise, they wouldn't be in the play. Embrace them all, and move on to the next act.
Folks, I'm telling you, birthing is hard and dying is mean- so get yourself a little loving in between.
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