When I have one martini, I feel bigger, wiser, taller. When I have a second, I feel superlative. When I have more, there's no holding me.
William FaulknerRead
A man is the sum of his misfortunes. One day you'd think misfortune would get tired but then time is your misfortune
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that a person's experiences, particularly their hardships, shape their identity over time.
William Faulkner's quote reflects on the impact of misfortune on an individual's character and life. It implies that the cumulative effect of one's challenges and adversities not only defines who they are but also hints at the relentless nature of time, which continues to present new challenges that can feel like ongoing misfortune. The quote invites reflection on how we perceive hardships and their role in our personal growth and identity.
Themes
MisfortuneIdentityExperienceChallengesTime
In practice
Example use cases
A speaker at a graduation ceremony could use this quote to emphasize the importance of resilience.
More from William Faulkner
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When grown people speak of the innocence of children, they dont really know what they mean. Pressed, they will go a step further and say, Well, ignorance then. The child is neither. There is no crime which a boy of eleven had not envisaged long ago. His only innocence is, he may not be old enough to desire the fruits of it...his ignorance is, he does not know how to commit it...
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Maybe times are never strange to women: it is just one continuous monotonous thing full of the repeated follies of their menfolks.
William FaulknerRead
He had a word, too. Love, he called it. But I had been used to words for a long time. I knew that that word was like the others: just a shape to fill a lack; that when the right time came, you wouldn't need a word for that any more than for pride or fear....One day I was talking to Cora. She prayed for me because she believed I was blind to sin, wanting me to kneel and pray too, because people to whom sin is just a matter of words, to them salvation is just words too.
William FaulknerRead
Ever since then I have believed that God is not only a gentleman and a sport; he is a Kentuckian too.
William FaulknerRead
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