QuoteProject
Unhappy is he to whom the memories of childhood bring only fear and sadness.
H. P. Lovecraft
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Childhood memories should evoke joy; when they bring fear and sadness, one’s life is less fulfilling.

This quote by H. P. Lovecraft reflects the profound impact that childhood experiences can have on an individual's overall happiness and mental well-being. It suggests that if one's memories of childhood are dominated by negative feelings such as fear and sadness, it can lead to a sense of unhappiness in adulthood, highlighting the importance of positive formative experiences in shaping a fulfilling life.

Themes

ChildhoodMemoriesHappinessFearSadness

In practice

Example use cases

In a speech about mental health, one could reference this quote to emphasize the importance of addressing childhood trauma.

More from H. P. Lovecraft

There are horrors beyond life's edge that we do not suspect, and once in a while man's evil prying calls them just within our range.
H. P. LovecraftRead
I know always that I am an outsider; a stranger in this century and among those who are still men.
H. P. LovecraftRead
Searchers after horror haunt strange, far places.
H. P. LovecraftRead
The process of delving into the black abyss is to me the keenest form of fascination.
H. P. LovecraftRead
No new horror can be more terrible than the daily torture of the commonplace.
H. P. LovecraftRead
I am, indeed, an absolute materialist so far as actual belief goes; with not a shred of credence in any form of supernaturalism—religion, spiritualism, transcendentalism, metempsychosis, or immortality.
H. P. LovecraftRead

Similar quotes

The rosy hearth, the lamplight's narrow beam, The meditation that is rather dream, With looks that lose themselves in cherished looks; The hour of steaming tea and banished books; The sweetness of the evening at an end, The dear fatigue, and right to rest attained, And worshipped expectation of the night,— Oh, all these things, in unrelenting flight, My dream pursues through all the vain delays, Impatient of the weeks, mad at the days!
Paul VerlaineRead
Life is a lot like surfing… When you get caught in the impact zone, you’ve got to just get back up. Because you never know what may be over the next wave.
Bethany HamiltonRead
By the time I wrote my memoir, 'Men We Reaped,' I had been running from writing it for a long time. When the events in the book were happening, I knew I'd probably write about them one day. I didn't want to. I'd studied fiction, and I was committed to establishing myself as a fiction writer first.
Jesmyn WardRead
I can no more think of my own life without thinking of wine and wines and where they grew for me and why I drank them when I did and why I picked the grapes and where I opened the oldest procurable bottles, and all that, than I can remember living before I breathed.
M. F. K. FisherRead
People tend to put entertainers on pedestals. We're human beings, just like you. You may see us smiling, and whether we have money or not, we still have bills to pay, we still have our stresses. I think a lot of people want to focus on others' shortcomings to make themselves feel better. And it's a very sad thing.
Janet JacksonRead
That the sum of a man's life was not where he wound up but in the details that brought him there. That we made mistakes. I closed my eyes, sick of the riddles, and to my surprise all I could see were dandelions-as if they had been painted on the fields of my imagination, a hundred thousand suns. And I remembered something else that makes us human: faith, the only weapon in our arsenal to battle doubt.
Jodi PicoultRead

A little wisdom, now and then

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