Standards are always out of date. That's what makes them standards.
Alan BennettRead
Life is rather like a tin of sardines - we're all of us looking for the key.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Life is complex and often confusing, with everyone seeking solutions to their challenges.
This quote by Alan Bennett uses the analogy of a tin of sardines to illustrate the idea that life can feel cramped and difficult, yet we all share a common quest for understanding and purpose. Just as sardines are packed closely together, people navigate through life, often feeling constrained while searching for the 'key' or answers that will unlock their potential and provide clarity.
Themes
LifeMeaningSearchUnderstandingPurpose
In practice
Example use cases
During a motivational speech about finding one's path, this quote can reinforce the idea of seeking clarity in life.
More from Alan Bennett
All quotes →To begin with, it's true, she read with trepidation and some unease. The sheer endlessness of books outfaced her and she had no idea how to go on; there was no system to her reading, with one book leading to another, and often she had two or three on the go at the same time.
Alan BennettRead
A book is a device to ignite the imagination.
Alan BennettRead
Those who have known the famous are publicly debriefed of their memories, knowing as their own dusk falls that they will only be remembered for remembering someone else.
Alan BennettRead
To read is to withdraw.To make oneself unavailable. One would feel easier about it if the pursuit inself were less...selfish.
Alan BennettRead
The best moments in reading are when you come across something - a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things - which you had thought special and particular to you. And now, here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out, and taken yours
Alan BennettRead
Similar quotes
When I was young, poverty was so common that we didn't know it had a name.
Lyndon B. JohnsonRead
Life may not always fall into neat chapters, and you may not always get the satisfying ending you're looking for, but sometimes a good explanation is all the rewrite you need.
Harlan CobenRead
In people's eyes, in the swing, tramp, and trudge; in the bellow and uproar; the carriages, motor cars, omnibuses, vans, sandwich men shuffling and swinging; brass bands; barrel organs; in the triumph and the jingle and the strange high singing of some aeroplane overhead was what she loved; life; London; this moment in June.
Virginia WoolfRead
I find now, swallowing one teaspoon of pain, that it drops downward to the past where it mixes with last year’s cupful and downward into a decade’s quart and downward into a lifetime’s ocean. I alternate treading water and deadman’s float.
Anne SextonRead
Life is easy, life is delightful. It's only hard on your illusions, your ambitions, your greed, your cravings.
Anthony De MelloRead
You pay for good days by then having bad days. You pay for joy with pain.
Taylor SwiftRead