QuoteProject
The world doesn't understand me and I don't understand the world, that's why I've withdrawn from it.
Paul Cezanne
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote expresses a sense of alienation and confusion between the individual and society.

In this quote, Paul Cezanne reflects on his feelings of disconnection from both the world and others, suggesting that this lack of understanding has led him to withdraw from society. It speaks to the deep introspective nature of artists and thinkers who often feel at odds with the prevailing norms and values of their surroundings, choosing to distance themselves as a means of coping with that disconnect.

Themes

AlienationUnderstandingWithdrawalSocietyConfusion

In practice

Example use cases

In a discussion on mental health, this quote illustrates the feelings of isolation and misunderstanding.

More from Paul Cezanne

An art which isn't based on feeling isn't an art at all... feeling is the principle, the beginning and the end; craft, objective, technique - all these are in the middle.
Paul CezanneRead
Taste is the best judge. It is rare. Art only addresses itself to an excessively small number of individuals.
Paul CezanneRead
Monet is only an eye, but my God, what an eye!
Paul CezanneRead
If I were called upon to define briefly the word Art, I should call it the reproduction of what the senses preceive in nature, seen through the veil of the soul.
Paul CezanneRead
The landscape thinks itself in me and I am its consciousness.
Paul CezanneRead
I lack the magnificent richness of color that animates nature.
Paul CezanneRead

Similar quotes

Everything is deception: seeking the minimum of illusion, keeping within the ordinary limitations, seeking the maximum. In the first case one cheats the Good, by trying to make it too easy for oneself to get it, and the Evil by imposing all too unfavorable conditions of warfare on it. In the second case one cheats the Good by keeping as aloof from it as possible, and the Evil by hoping to make it powerless through intensifying it to the utmost.
Franz KafkaRead
When feminism falls short of our expectations, we decide the problem is with feminism rather than with the flawed people who act in the name of the movement.
Roxane GayRead
No one should approach the temple of science with the soul of a money changer.
Thomas BrowneRead
If you look at history you'll find that no state has been so plagued by its rulers as when power has fallen into the hands of some dabbler in philosophy or literary addict.
Desiderius ErasmusRead
It were better to have no opinion of God at all than such a one as is unworthy of him; for the one is only belief - the other contempt.
PlutarchRead
Survival, in the cool economics of biology, means simply the persistence of one's own genes in the generations to follow.
Lewis ThomasRead

A little wisdom, now and then

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

Quote by Paul Cezanne | QuoteProject