QuoteProject
When I was a kid, all I knew was that I felt more comfortable sitting in one chair than in another. And now I realize it was because one chair was older. I still respond directly to the age of things.
Robert Redford
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote reflects on how personal comfort and preferences can be influenced by the history and age of objects.

In this quote, Robert Redford shares a profound realization from his childhood about feeling comfortable in certain chairs over others. He acknowledges that his preference was not arbitrary but was influenced by the age and presence of the objects around him. This observation suggests a deeper connection between individuals and their environments, highlighting how our experiences with aged items can elicit familiarity, comfort, and a sense of history. It hints at an innate human response to the essence and stories that older things carry, which can affect our emotional states and perceptions.

Themes

ComfortAgePreferenceHistoryEnvironment

In practice

Example use cases

During a speech on nostalgia, one might reference this quote to discuss how our past shapes our present preferences.

More from Robert Redford

I'm always drawn to stories that people don't know about, particularly when they're inside of a story that everyone knows about.
Robert RedfordRead
People say I've gone against Hollywood, but I've tried to be independent within Hollywood, tried to be my own person.
Robert RedfordRead
For me, the Sundance Institute is just an extension of something I believed in, which is creating a mechanism for new voices to have a place to develop and be heard.
Robert RedfordRead
Storytelling was a way to see the world bigger than the one you were looking at, and that had great appeal for me. I think, since that was part of my upbringing, it became part of me, and I wanted to pass it along to my kids and my grandkids.
Robert RedfordRead
Be careful of success; it has a dark side.
Robert RedfordRead
I had just arrived in New York from California. I was nineteen years old and excited beyond belief. I was an art student and an acting student and behaved as most young actors did - meaning that there was no such thing as a good actor, 'cause you yourself hadn't shown up yet.
Robert RedfordRead

Similar quotes

I'm very emotional; I think I may go mad in several years' time.
Freddie MercuryRead
There lived a redheaded man who had no eyes or ears. He didn’t have hair either, so he was called a redhead arbitrarily. He couldn’t talk because he had no mouth. He had no nose either. He didn’t even have arms or legs. He had no stomach, he had no back, he had no spine, and he had no innards at all. He didn’t have anything. So we don’t even know who we’re talking about. It’s better that we don’t talk about him any more.
Daniil KharmsRead
Death undoes us less, sometimes, than the hope that it will never come.
Pico IyerRead
A beetle may or may not be inferior to a man - the matter awaits demonstration; but if he were inferior by ten thousand fathoms, the fact remains that there is probably a beetle view of things of which a man is entirely ignorant. If he wishes to conceive that point of view, he will scarcely reach it by persistently revelling in the fact that he is not a beetle.
Gilbert K. ChestertonRead
I hated labels anyway. People didn't fit in slots--prostitute, housewife, saint--like sorting the mail. We were so mutable, fluid with fear and desire, ideals and angles, changeable as water.
Janet FitchRead
The whole point of the kingdom of God is Jesus has come to bear witness to the true truth, which is nonviolent. When God wants to take charge of the world, he doesn't send in the tanks. He sends in the poor and the meek.
N. T. WrightRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.