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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.
Khaled Hosseini
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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

There was brotherhood between people who had fed from the same breast, a kinship that even time could not break. - Amir
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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.
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And that's the thing about people who mean everything they say. They think everyone else does too.
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Perspective [is] a luxury when your head [is] constantly buzzing with a swarm of demons.
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The desert weed lives on, but the flower of spring blooms and wilts.
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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.
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