Intelligence and education that hasn't been tempered by human affection isn't worth a damn.
Daniel KeyesRead
Remembering how my mother looked before she gave birth to my sister is frightening. But even more frightening is the feeling that I wanted them to catch me and beat me. Why did I want to be punished? Shadows out of the past clutch at my legs and drag me down. I open my mouth to scream, but I am voiceless. My hands are trembling, I feel cold, and there is a distant humming in my ears.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects a complex relationship with past traumas and familial expectations.
In this quote, the author Daniel Keyes delves into the haunting memories of childhood and the paradoxical desire for punishment. It illustrates the psychological turmoil of feeling both frightened by past experiences and yearning for a connection that is marked by conflict, encapsulating the struggle between love and fear within familial dynamics.
Themes
MemoryTraumaFamilyPunishmentFear
In practice
Example use cases
In a therapy session, this quote could illustrate the complexity of childhood memories.
More from Daniel Keyes
All quotes →How can I make him understand that he did not create me? He makes the same mistake as the others when they look at a feeble-minded person and laugh because they don't understand there are human feelings involved.
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Im like a man whos been half-asleep all his life, trying to find out what he was like before he woke up.
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No one really starts anything new, Mrs. Nemur. Everyone builds on other men's failures. There is nothing really original in science. What each man contributes to the sum of knowledge is what counts.
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The path I choose through the maze makes me what I am. I am not only a thing, but also a way of being--one of many ways--and knowing the paths I have followed and the ones left to take will help me understand what I am becoming.
Daniel KeyesRead
How strange it is that people of honest feelings and sensibilty, who would not take advantage of a man born without arms or legs or eyes—how such people think nothing of abusing a man with low intelligence.
Daniel KeyesRead
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