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
Like all young men I set out to be a genius, but mercifully laughter intervened.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The pursuit of genius can be disrupted by the lightness of laughter, which reminds us of our humanity.
This quote reflects the balance between the serious aspirations of youth and the unexpected joy brought by laughter. Lawrence Durrell suggests that while young people often strive for greatness and genius, it is the humor and lightness in life that provides a necessary counterbalance and a more relatable perspective on ambitions.
Themes
LaughterGeniusYouthBalanceHumor
In practice
Example use cases
During a graduation speech, to highlight the importance of taking life lightly while pursuing dreams.
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
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.
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
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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