QuoteProject
Only when a tree has fallen can you take the measure of it. It is the same with a man.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

True understanding and appreciation often come after loss or absence.

This quote by Anne Morrow Lindbergh suggests that the full worth of something can often only be recognized after it is no longer present. Just as one can better assess the size of a fallen tree, people's values and contributions may be more fully acknowledged in their absence, prompting reflection on their true impact in life.

Themes

LossAppreciationReflectionImpactUnderstanding

In practice

Example use cases

In a eulogy to celebrate a loved one's life, this quote highlights the importance of recognizing their impact after they are gone.

More from Anne Morrow Lindbergh

If you surrender completely to the moments as they pass, you live more richly those moments.
Anne Morrow LindberghRead
When each partner loves so completely that he has forgotten to ask himself whether or not he is loved in return; when he only knows that he loves and is moving to its music--then, and then only are two people able to dance perfectly in tune to the same rhythm.
Anne Morrow LindberghRead
It isn't for the moment you are struck that you need courage, but for that long uphill climb back to sanity and faith and security.
Anne Morrow LindberghRead
Travelers are always discoverers, especially those who travel by air. There are no signposts in the sky to show a man has passed that way before. There are no channels marked. The flier breaks each second into new uncharted seas.
Anne Morrow LindberghRead
Don't wish me happiness - I don't expect to be happy it's gotten beyond that, somehow. Wish me courage and strength and a sense of humor - I will need them all.
Anne Morrow LindberghRead
I am most anxious to give my own children enough love and understanding so that they won't grow up with an aching void in them--like you and I and Harold and Martha. That can never be filled, and one goes around all one's life trying, trying to make up for what one didn't get that was one's birthright, asking the wrong people for it.
Anne Morrow LindberghRead

Similar quotes

There's a whole category of people who miss out by not allowing themselves to be weird enough.
Alain De BottonRead
Lucy went first, biting her lip and trying not to say all the things she thought of saying to Susan. But she forgot them when she fixed her eyes on Aslan.
C. S. LewisRead
You don't need people’s opinion on a fact. You might as well have a poll asking: ‘Which number is bigger, 15 or 5?’ or ‘Do owls exist?’ or ‘Are there hats?'
John OliverRead
The phrases that men hear or repeat continually, end by becoming convictions and ossify the organs of intelligence.
Johann Wolfgang Von GoetheRead
Greatness is always built on this foundation: the ability to appear, speak and act, as the most common man.
HafezRead
Jessica stopped beside him, said: 'What delicious abandon in the sleep of a child.' He spoke mechanically: 'If only adults could relax like that.' 'Yes.' 'Where do we lose it?' he murmured. 'We do, indeed, lose something,' she said.
Frank HerbertRead

A little wisdom, now and then

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