The comic spirit is given to us in order that we may analyze, weigh, and clarify things in us which nettle us, or which we are outgrowing, or trying to reshape
Thornton WilderRead
Without your wounds where would your power be? It is your melancholy that makes your low voice tremble into the hearts of men and women. The very angels themselves cannot persuade the wretched and blundering children on earth as can one human being broken on the wheels of living. In Love’s service, only wounded soldiers can serve. Physician, draw back.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Our struggles and pain give us strength and depth, allowing us to connect with others profoundly.
In this quote, Thornton Wilder emphasizes that personal suffering enhances our capacity to relate to others and to convey our emotions. The metaphor of 'wounded soldiers' serving in love suggests that those who have experienced hardship possess unique insights and empathy, enabling them to communicate love and understanding that resonates deeply with others. The quote acknowledges that pain and melancholy are not barriers, but rather sources of power in human connection.
Themes
WoundsPowerMelancholyServiceLoveHuman Connection
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about resilience and empathy, one could use this quote to illustrate the strength that comes from overcoming personal challenges.
More from Thornton Wilder
All quotes →A man looks pretty small at a wedding, George. All those good women standing shoulder to shoulder, making sure that the knot's tied in a mighty public way.
Thornton WilderRead
Good-by, Good-by, world. Good-by, Grover's Corners... Mama and Papa. Good-by to clocks ticking... and Mama's sunflowers. And food and coffee. And new-ironed dresses and hot baths...and sleeping and waking up. Oh, earth, you're too wonderful for anybody to realize you.
Thornton WilderRead
When you're safe at home you wish you were having an adventure; when you're having an adventure you wish you were safe at home.
Thornton WilderRead
Many great writers have been extraordinarily awkward in daily exchange, but the greatest give the impression that their style was nursed by the closest attention to colloquial speech.
Thornton WilderRead
I want you to try and remember what it was like to have been very young. And particularly the days when you were first in love; when you were like a person sleepwalking, and you didn’t quite see the street you were in, and didn’t quite hear everything that was said to you. You’re just a little bit crazy. Will you remember that, please?
Thornton WilderRead
Similar quotes
Beli at thirteen believed in love like a seventy-year-old widow who's been abandoned by family, husband, children and fortune believes in God.
Junot DiazRead
From suffering I have learned this: that whoever is sore wounded by love will never be made whole unless she embraces the very same love which wounded her.
Mechthild Of MagdeburgRead
Love knows how to form itself. God will do his work if we do ours. Our job is to prepare ourselves for love. When we do, love finds us every time.
Marianne WilliamsonRead
Since you walked out on me I'm getting lovelier by the hour. I glow like a corpse in the dark. No one sees how round and sharp my eyes have grown how my carcass looks like a glass urn, how I hold up things in the rags of my hands, the way I can stand through crippled by lust. No, there's just your cruelty circling my head like a bright rotting halo.
Nina CassianRead
I see love in black and white. Passion in shades of “gris”. But when it comes to you and I, color is all I see.
Lady GagaRead
Love with complications. Scenery was the last thing on my mind.
Haruki MurakamiRead