I mean, it's like we all get our raw materials from our families―but it's up to us whether we build bridges or bombs.
Neal ShustermanRead
I'll never understand how a man can live his life With his finger on the self-destruct button, Holding it there day after day, Blinded by an obsession to press it But lacking the conviction to do even that.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on the struggle between self-destructive tendencies and the inability to take decisive action.
Neal Shusterman's quote delves into the paradox of human behavior, where an individual may be fully aware of their self-destructive impulses yet remains inactive and paralyzed by their internal conflicts. It emphasizes the complexity of human psychology, highlighting how obsession can blind a person to their true desires or needs, leaving them in a state of inaction even when they have the power to change their circumstances.
Themes
Self-DestructionActionObsessionConvictionPsychology
In practice
Example use cases
During a motivational speech about overcoming personal struggles.
More from Neal Shusterman
All quotes →Either things happen for a reason, or they happen for no reason at all. Either one's life is a thread in a glorious tapestry or humanity is just a hopelessly tangled knot.
Neal ShustermanRead
Unwinds didn't go out with a bang-they didn't even go out with a whimper. they went out with the silence of a candle flame pinched between two fingers.
Neal ShustermanRead
She smiles at them as they go by and continues to play, making it clear that this furnace of a place, full of planes that cannot fly, is more than it seems. It is a womb of redemption for every Unwind, and fora ll those who fought the Heartland War and lost - which was everybody.
Neal ShustermanRead
Words don't hurt you." Which is one of the hugest criminal lies perpetrated by adults against children in this world. Because words hurt more than any physical pain.
Neal ShustermanRead
Which is worse, Risa often wondered, to have tens of thousands of babies that no one wanted or to silently make then go away before they were even born
Neal ShustermanRead
Similar quotes
It is bad for a young man to sin; but it is worse for an old man to sin.
Abu BakrRead
And I'm not a student of religion, but I don't find anything in what the principal teachings of Islam that put us in contradiction at all. In fact, the principles are the same as what-we have a diverse religious culture. But it's kindness, it's be good to your neighbor, it's love, and it's take care of children. It's all these things that-so there's no anti-Islam.
George H. W. BushRead
As for fame, fame felt like nothing. Fame was not a sensation like love or hunger or loneliness, welling from within and invisible to the outside eye. It was rather entirely external, coming from the minds of others. It existed in the way people looked at him or behaved towards him. In that, being famous was no different from being gay, or Jewish, or from a visible minority: you are who you are, and then people project onto you some notion they have.
Yann MartelRead
But nothing in India is identifiable, the mere asking of a question causes it to disappear or to merge in something else.
E. M. ForsterRead
Germany's path to greater military assertiveness has not been linear, and it never will be. Germans do not believe that talking at roundtables solves every problem, but neither do they think that shooting does.
Frank-Walter SteinmeierRead
No voice comes from outer space, from the folds of dust and carpets of wind to tell us that this is the way it was meant to happen, that if only we knew how long the ruins would last we would never complain.
Mark StrandRead