The deep joy we take in the company of people with whom we have just recently fallen in love is undisguisable.
The world that was not mine yesterday now lies spread out at my feet, a splendor. I seem, in the middle of the night, to have returned to the world of apples, the orchards of Heaven. Perhaps I should take my problems to a shrink, or perhaps I should enjoy the apples that I have, streaked with color like the evening sky.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects a sense of newfound appreciation for life and the beauty it holds, contrasting personal struggles with the joy found in simple pleasures.
In this quote, John Cheever expresses a transformation in perspective, illuminating how a person's view of the world can change dramatically in a short time. He juxtaposes the weight of his problems with the vibrant imagery of apples and the orchards of Heaven, suggesting that despite life’s challenges, there is an abundance of beauty and splendor to be appreciated, especially in moments of reflection.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be shared during a motivational seminar to inspire attendees to focus on the positives in their lives.
More from John Cheever
All quotes →For me a page of good prose is where one hears the rain. A page of good prose is when one hears the noise of battle.... A page of good prose seems to me the most serious dialogue that well-informed and intelligent men and women carry on today in their endeavor to make sure that the fires of this planet burn peaceably.
For me, a page of good prose is where one hears the rain and the noise of battle. It has the power to give grief or universality that lends it a youthful beauty.
What I am going to write is the last of what I have to say. I will say that literature is the only consciousness we possess and that its role as consciousness must inform us of our ability to comprehend the hideous danger of nuclear power.
Art is the triumph over chaos.
The short story is the literature of the nomad.
Similar quotes
We are all life trying to live, among other life trying to live.
There are moments in life, when the heart is so full of emotion That if by chance it be shaken, or into its depths like a pebble Drops some careless word, it overflows, and its secret, Spilt on the ground like water, can never be gathered together.
The worst thing in the world is to try to sleep and not to.
I don't think it's the most important thing in life to fit it. I think it's the most important thing in life to dance to the beat of your own drum and to look like you're having more fun than the people who look cool like they fit in.
We'll bury our mothers and fathers - shuttling our children off for sleepovers, jumping on red-eyes, telling eachother stories that hurt to hear, about gasping, agonal breaths, hospice nurses, scars and bruises and scabs, and how skin papers shortly after a person passes. We will nod in agreement that it is as much an honor to witness a person leave this world as it is to watch a person come into it.
In basketball - as in life - true joy comes from being fully present in each and every moment, not just when things are going your way.