The best poems take long journeys. I like poetry best that journeys--while remaining in the human scale--to the other world, which may be a place as easily overlooked as a bee's wing
Robert BlyRead
As I've gotten older, I find I am able to be nourished more by sorrow and to distinguish it from depression.
Interpretation
What this quote means
With age, one can learn to appreciate sorrow as a valuable experience rather than confusing it with depression.
This quote by Robert Bly reflects the idea that maturity brings a deeper understanding of emotions. As individuals grow older, they often learn to recognize the difference between productive sorrow, which can lead to personal growth and insight, and depression, which may hinder their functioning and well-being. This distinction allows for a healthier relationship with one's feelings, enabling a more nuanced approach to life's challenges.
Themes
SorrowDepressionGrowthWisdomMaturity
In practice
Example use cases
In a therapy session discussing emotional growth.
More from Robert Bly
All quotes βI am proud only of those days that pass in undivided tenderness.
Robert BlyRead
My feeling is that poetry is also a healing process, and then when a person tries to write poetry with depth or beauty, he will find himself guided along paths which will heal him, and this is more important, actually, than any of the poetry he writes.
Robert BlyRead
Every part of you that you do not love will regress and become hostile towards you.
Robert BlyRead
The door to the soul is unlocked; you do not need to please the doorkeeper, the door in front of you is yours, intended for you, and the doorkeeper obeys when spoken to.
Robert BlyRead
Don't go outside your house to see flowers. My friend, don't bother with that excursion. Inside your body there are flowers. One flower has a thousand petals. That will do for a place to sit. Sitting there you will have a glimpse of beauty inside the body and out of it, before gardens and after gardens.
Robert BlyRead
Similar quotes
Get to the end of yourself where you can do nothing, but where He does everything.
Oswald ChambersRead
One should practice much sense, not much learning.
DemocritusRead
What suffering has taught me is the uselessness of suffering.
Bernard MalamudRead
Aspire to be like Mt. Fuji, with such a broad and solid foundation that the strongest earthquake cannot move you, and so tall that the greatest enterprises of common men seem insignificant from your lofty perspective. With your mind as high as Mt Fuji you can see all things clearly. And you can see all the forces that shape events; not just the things happening near to you.
Miyamoto MusashiRead
She closed one eye and looked at me and said, "I know there is a blessing in this somewhere." It is worth living long enough to outlast whatever sense of grievance you may acquire. Another reason why you must be careful of your health.
Marilynne RobinsonRead
If any successes has come to me, it came because I insisted on thinking things through. That's all I was capable of doing in life, was thinking pretty hard about trying to get the right answer, and then acting on it. I never learned to do anything else.
Charlie MungerRead