Sadness is more or less like a head cold - with patience, it passes. Depression is like cancer.
Barbara KingsolverRead
Bitter words normally evaporate with the moisture of breath, after a quarrel. In order to become permanent, they require transcribers, reporters, complicit black hearts.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Bitter words spoken in anger fade away unless they are documented or remembered by those who choose to hold onto negativity.
This quote by Barbara Kingsolver suggests that while harsh words said in conflict may be fleeting and forgotten as quickly as they are spoken, they can become enduring if they are recorded or if the hearers choose to dwell on them. The idea emphasizes the power of choice in how we remember interpersonal conflicts and the role that external influences play in perpetuating negativity.
Themes
BitterWordsRelationshipsConflictMemory
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about the impact of words in conflict resolution.
More from Barbara Kingsolver
All quotes βChildren can be your heartache. But that doesn't matter, you have to go on and have them . . . it works out.
Barbara KingsolverRead
I'm of a fearsome mind to throw my arms around every living librarian who crosses my path, on behalf of the souls they never knew they saved.
Barbara KingsolverRead
I did it to win love, and to prove myself capable. Not to move mountains. In my opinions, mountains don't move. They only look changed when you look down on them from great height.
Barbara KingsolverRead
Memory is a complicated thing, a relative to truth, but not its twin.
Barbara KingsolverRead
Empathy is really the opposite of spiritual meanness. It's the capacity to understand that every war is both won and lost. And that someone else's pain is as meaningful as your own.
Barbara KingsolverRead
Similar quotes
I think we have to own the fears that we have of each other, and then, in some practical way, some daily way, figure out how to see people differently than the way we were brought up to.
Alice WalkerRead
Don't wait for someone else to complete you. 'Jerry Maguire' was just a movie.
Oprah WinfreyRead
The global work of the United Nations is not without reason compared to that of a family - striving for a common goal in concert with all members for a better future.
Kofi AnnanRead
I truly respect the people who are working. If they want an autograph from Patti LaBelle, they are going to get it. I have never separated myself from them. I never think you are better than the next one.
Patti LabelleRead
I never understood that when I heard people retire - they said they missed being around the guys. I don't have a need to make a play in the ninth inning of a game anymore. But being on the inside and being part of a team is something that you really do value and you really do miss.
Cal Ripken, Jr.Read
Here's what I've learned about deal-breakers. If you have enough natural chemistry with someone, you overlook every single thing that you said would break the deal.
Taylor SwiftRead