There was brotherhood between people who had fed from the same breast, a kinship that even time could not break. - Amir
Khaled HosseiniRead
You're gutless. It's how you were made. And that's not such a bad thing because your saving grace is that you've never lied to yourself about it. Not about that. Nothing wrong with cowardice as long as it comes with prudence. But when a coward stops remembering who he is... God help him.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Acknowledge your true self and be cautious; cowardice can coexist with wisdom.
In this quote, Khaled Hosseini presents the idea that recognizing one's limitations and fears is not a weakness but rather a form of self-awareness. He emphasizes that while it is acceptable to be cowardly, it becomes dangerous when one forgets their true nature, suggesting that self-honesty and understanding are crucial for personal integrity and safety.
Themes
CowardiceCourageSelf-AwarenessPrudenceTruth
In practice
Example use cases
During a motivational speech to encourage honesty about weaknesses.
More from Khaled Hosseini
All quotes →I don't outline at all; I don't find it useful, and I don't like the way it boxes me in. I like the element of surprise and spontaneity, of letting the story find its own way.
Khaled HosseiniRead
And that's the thing about people who mean everything they say. They think everyone else does too.
Khaled HosseiniRead
Perspective [is] a luxury when your head [is] constantly buzzing with a swarm of demons.
Khaled HosseiniRead
The desert weed lives on, but the flower of spring blooms and wilts.
Khaled HosseiniRead
It would be erroneous to say Sohrab was quiet. Quiet is peace. Tranquility. Quiet is turning down the volume knob on life. Silence is pushing the off button. Shutting it down. All of it. Sohrab's silence wasn't the self imposed silence of those with convictions, of protesters who seek to speak their cause by not speaking at all. It was the silence of one who has taken cover in a dark place, curled up all the edges and tucked them under.
Khaled HosseiniRead
Similar quotes
What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.
John SteinbeckRead
Robots do not hold on to life. They can't. They have nothing to hold on with - no soul, no instinct. Grass has more will to live than they do.
Karel CapekRead
Any emotion, if it is sincere, is involuntary.
Mark TwainRead
The power of a man is his present means to obtain some future apparent good.
Thomas HobbesRead
Just the other day the AP wire had a story about a man from Arkansas who entered some kind of contest and won a two-week vacation--all expenses paid--wherever he wanted to go. Any place in the world: Mongolia, Easter Island, the Turkish Riviera . . . but his choice was Salt Lake City, and that's where he went. Is this man a registered voter? Has he come to grips with the issues? Has he bathed in the blood of the lamb?
Hunter S. ThompsonRead
No wickedness proceeds on any grounds of reason.
LivyRead