Do you know what a playwright is? A playwright is someone who lets his guts hang out on the stage.
Edward AlbeeRead
Any definition which limits us is deplorable.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes that any restrictive definitions diminish our potential and should be rejected.
Edward Albee's quote suggests that definitions and labels can confine our identities and abilities, hindering personal growth and expression. It calls for a rejection of limiting beliefs and encourages individuals to embrace their complexities and possibilities beyond societal or self-imposed confines.
Themes
DefinitionLimitsIdentityPotentialFreedom
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about personal growth, you might say, 'Remember, any definition which limits us is deplorable.'
More from Edward Albee
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I am convinced that no one is fully educated without a full grounding in the arts.
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Good writers define reality; bad ones merely restate it.
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Remember one thing about democracy. We can have anything we want and at the same time, we always end up with exactly what we deserve.
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Your source material is the people you know, not those you don't know, but every character is an extension of the author's own personality.
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Similar quotes
And truly it demands something god like in him who has cast off the common motives of humanity, and has ventured to trust himself for a taskmaster. High be his heart, faithful his will, clear his sight, that he may in good earnest be doctrine, society, law, to himself, that a simple purpose may be to him as strong as iron necessity is to others!
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Europe will never be like America. Europe is a product of history. America is a product of philosophy.
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The settler makes history and is conscious of making it. And because he constantly refers to the history of his mother country, he clearly indicates that he himself is the extension of that mother country. Thus the history which he writes is not the history of the country which he plunders but the history of his own nation in regard to all that she skims off, all that she violates and starves.
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Truth has beauty, power, and necessity.
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People talk vaguely about the innocence of a little child, but they take mighty good care not to let it out of their sight for twenty minutes.
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A man who is truthful and does not mean ill even to his adversary will be slow to believe charges even against his foes. He will, however, try to understand the viewpoints of his opponents and will always keep an open mind and seek every opportunity of serving his opponents.
Mahatma GandhiRead