Perhaps our only sickness is to desire a truth which we cannot bear rather than to rest content with the fictions we manufacture out of each other.
Lawrence DurrellRead
Journeys, like artists, are born and not made. A thousand differing circumstances contribute to them, few of them willed or determined by the will-whatever we may think.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Journeys are shaped by circumstances rather than solely by personal will.
In this quote, Lawrence Durrell suggests that the paths we take in life are influenced by a myriad of external factors and situations, rather than being entirely dictated by our own desires or determinations. This perspective emphasizes the unpredictable nature of life's journey, akin to the way an artist's creativity emerges from a blend of experiences and influences rather than from a rigid framework of plans or intentions.
Themes
JourneyCircumstancesLifeWillArtist
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about personal growth, one might say, 'Remember, journeys, like artists, are born and not made.'
More from Lawrence Durrell
All quotes βI had become, with the approach of night, once more aware of loneliness and time - those two companions without whom no journey can yield us anything.
Lawrence DurrellRead
The whole Mediterranean, the sculpture, the palm, the gold beads, the bearded heroes, the wine, the ideas, the ships, the moonlight, the winged gorgons, the bronze men, the philosophers - all of it seems to rise in the sour, pungent taste of these black olives between the teeth. A taste older than meat, older than wine. A taste as old as cold water.
Lawrence DurrellRead
The heaviest impact of the work of art is in the guts. Art does not reason. It manhandles you and changes you.
Lawrence DurrellRead
Like all young men I set out to be a genius, but mercifully laughter intervened.
Lawrence DurrellRead
We are the children of our landscape; it dictates behavior and even thought in the measure to which we are responsive to it.
Lawrence DurrellRead
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