If you send up a weather vane or put your thumb up in the air every time you want to do something different, to find out what people are going to think about it, you're going to limit yourself. That's a very strange way to live.
Jessye NormanRead
I knew that I was loved. And that's such an important thing. And, of course, at such an early age, you take it for granted. Of course your parents love you. Of course Mrs. Hubert across the street loves you and your godmother loves you and your grandparents love you.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote expresses the deep value of knowing one is loved, often taken for granted in childhood.
Jessye Norman highlights the fundamental importance of love in a person's life, particularly during childhood. She reflects on how the love from family and community members is often assumed and taken for granted when we are young, yet it lays the foundation for our self-worth and emotional well-being.
Themes
LoveChildhoodFamilyCommunityEmotional Well-Being
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of family, one might use this quote to illustrate how foundational love is for growth.
More from Jessye Norman
All quotes βMy parents said to us, practically on a daily basis, that we were as good as anyone else on this earth, and that we would simply have to work harder in order to show that.
Jessye NormanRead
Problems arise in that one has to find a balance between what people need from you and what you need for yourself.
Jessye NormanRead
I am grateful that my horizons were not narrowed at the outset.
Jessye NormanRead
As for my voice, it cannot be categorised - and I like it that way, because I sing things that would be considered in the dramatic, mezzo or spinto range.
Jessye NormanRead
It is still more likely that a woman's power would be seen as aggression, and a man's power would be seen as assertion.
Jessye NormanRead
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My love for prayer was an answer to prayer.
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Love is an untamed force. When we try to control it, it destroys us. When we try to imprison it, it enslaves us. When we try to understand it, it leaves us feeling lost and confused.
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He who wants to do good knocks at the gate: he who loves finds the door open.
Rabindranath TagoreRead
A conditional love is nothing but an infatuation, sexuality. Unconditional is the only way love can be. Wherever a condition comes in, love disappears. It cannot live in bondage, and a condition gives it an imprisonment. Love can only live like the vast sky. Love knows no boundaries.
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I never looked at the masses as my responsibility. I can only love one person at a time. So I began. I picked up one person. Maybe if I didn't pick up that one person, I wouldn't have picked up forty-two thousand.
Mother TeresaRead
Nothing else is necessary but these - love, sincerity, and patience.
Swami VivekanandaRead