We burned with love for ourselves, all of us, starters of the fire we suffered- our love was the affliction for which only our love was the cure.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the dual nature of love, where it can both cause suffering and provide healing.
In this quote, Jonathan Safran Foer explores the idea that love for oneself is both a powerful catalyst and a source of pain. The phrase 'burned with love for ourselves' suggests an intense, perhaps overwhelming passion that can lead to struggle and suffering. However, he also highlights that this very love is what provides the remedy for the anguish it brings, indicating that the journey of self-love is fraught with challenges, yet ultimately essential for healing and personal growth.
In practice
A speaker at a mental health workshop might use this quote to emphasize the importance of self-acceptance.
Memory was supposed to fill the time, but it made time a hole to be filled. Each second was two hundred yards, to be walked, crawled. You couldn't see the next hour, it was so far in the distance. Tomorrow was over the horizon, and would take an entire day to reach.
She was not crying Which surprised me very much But I understand now That she had found places For her melancholy That were behind more masks Than only her eyes
What do babies dream of? She must be dreaming of the before-life, just as I dream of the afterlife.
A few weeks after the worst day, I started writing lots of letters. I don't know why, but it was one of the only things that made my boots lighter.
What is being awake if not interpreting our dreams, or dreaming if not interpreting our wake?
Just how destructive does a culinary preference have to be before we decide to eat something else? If contributing to the suffering of billions of animals that live miserable lives and (quite often) die in horrific ways isn't motivating, what would be? If being the number one contributor to the most serious threat facing the planet (global warming) isn't enough, what is? And if you are tempted to put off these questions of conscience, to say not now, then when?
Happiness is holding someone in your arms and knowing you hold the whole world.
Tell the angels no, I don’t wanna leave my baby alone I don’t want nobody else to hold you That’s a chance I’ll take Baby I’ll stay, Heaven can wait No, if the angels took me from this earth I would tell them bring me back to her It’s a chance I’ll take, maybe I’ll stay Heaven can wait
It is an interesting law of romance that a truly strong woman will choose a strong man who disagrees with her over a weak one who goes along. Strength demands intelligence, intelligence demands stimulation, and weakness is boring. It is better to find a partner you can contend with for a lifetime than one who accommodates you because he doesn't really care.
The value and quality of any love is determined solely by the lover himself.
O love, O fire! once he drew With one long kiss my whole soul through My lips, as sunlight drinketh dew.
Absence, like death, sets a seal on the image of those we love: we cannot realize the intervening changes which time may have effected.
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