When you look at it that way, you can see how absurd it is that we individualize ourselves with our fences and hoarded possessions.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the absurdity of how we isolate ourselves through material possessions and personal barriers.
Morrie Schwartz's quote reflects on the tendency of individuals to create boundaries and possess material goods as a means of establishing identity and security. It suggests that this behavior is not only absurd but also counterproductive to human connection, as true fulfillment often comes from shared experiences and relationships rather than hoarding possessions.
In practice
In a speech about minimalism, this quote can illustrate how possessions can hinder true happiness.
People are only mean when they're threatened… and that's what our culture does. That's what our economy does. Even people who have jobs in our economy are threatened, because they worry about losing them. And when you get threatened, you start looking out only for yourself. You start making money a god. It is all part of this culture.
The best way to deal with that is to live in a fully conscious, compassionate, loving way. Don't wait until you're on your deathbed to recognize that this is the only way to live.
Now that I'm suffering, I feel closer to people who suffer more than I ever did before. The other night, on TV, I saw people in Bosnia running across the street, getting fired upon, killed, innocent victims....and I just started to cry. I feel their anguish as if it were my own. I don't know any of these people. But - how can I put this? I'm almost......drawn to them.
Do the kind of things that come from the heart, When you do, you won't be dissatisfied, you won't be envious, you won't be longing for somebody else's things. On the contrary, you'll be overhelmed with what comes back
It’s natural to die. The fact that we make such a big hullabaloo over it is all because we don’t see ourselves as part of nature. We think because we’re human we’re something above nature.
Because if you've found meaning in your life, you don't want to go back. You want to go forward.
I know my country has not perfected itself. At times, we've struggled to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our people. We've made our share of mistakes, and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions.
Our prayers should be for blessings in general, for God knows best what is good for us.
I find the whole business of religion profoundly interesting. But it does mystify me that otherwise intelligent people take it seriously.
Wretched men cringe before tyrants who have no power, the victims of their trivial hopes and fears. They do not realise that anger is hopeless, fear is pointless and desire all a delusion. He whose heart is fickle is not his own master, has thrown away his shield, deserted his post, and he forges the links of the chain that holds him.
I am one who has been acquainted with the night
Size is not a reality, but a construct of the mind; and space a construct to contain constructs.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.