This is my child. I planted it. I saw it grow. I loved it. Don't cut it down.
R.K. NarayanRead
We come together only to go apart again. The law of life can't be avoided. The law comes into operation the moment we detach ourselves from our mother's womb. All struggle & misery in life is due to our attempt to arrest this law or get away from it or in allowing ourselves to be hurt by it. The fact must be recognized. A profound unmitigated loneliness is the only truth of life. All else is false. The law of life. No sense in battling against it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Life is a cycle of coming together and parting, and resisting this cycle leads to struggle and loneliness.
R.K. Narayan's quote explores the inevitability of separation in life, suggesting that from the moment we are born, we are destined to experience both connection and disconnection. The quote indicates that much of our suffering stems from our resistance to this natural law of life, emphasizing the idea that embracing this cycle rather than fighting it could lead to a deeper understanding of our existence and the loneliness that accompanies it.
Themes
LifeSeparationLonelinessStruggleTruth
In practice
Example use cases
In a graduation speech to highlight the bittersweet nature of accomplishments.
More from R.K. Narayan
All quotes →Similar quotes
To be baptized means to make the passage with the people of Israel and with Jesus from slavery to freedom and from death to new life. It is a commitment to a life in and through Jesus.
Henri NouwenRead
There should be a science of discontent. People need hard times and oppression to develop psychic muscles.
Frank HerbertRead
Karma, when properly understood, is just the mechanics through which consciousness manifests.
Deepak ChopraRead
You can make some inferences about a man's character if you know something about the conditions in which he has survived and prospered.
Richard DawkinsRead
What is man without the beasts? For if all the beast were gone, man would die of a great loneliness of the spirit.
Chief SeattleRead
What else can I do? Once you've gone this far you aren't fit for anything else. Something happens to your mind. You're overqualified, overspecialized, and everybody knows it. Nobody in any other game would be crazy enough to hire me. I wouldn't even make a good ditch-digger, I'd start tearing apart the sewer-system, trying to pick-axe and unearth all those chthonic symbols - pipes, valves, cloacal conduits... No, no. I'll have to be a slave in the paper-mines for all time.
Margaret AtwoodRead