Normal, in our house, is like a blanket too short for a bed--sometimes it covers you just fine, and other times it leaves you cold and shaking; and worst of all, you never know which of the two it's going to be.
Jodi PicoultRead
Nathaniel closes his eyes and jumps, his arms glued to his sides like that fly's. He doesn't try to break his fall, just hits hard, because it hurts less than everything else.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote illustrates the idea of facing pain directly rather than avoiding it.
In this quote, Nathaniel's act of jumping without attempting to break his fall symbolizes the courage to confront one's pain head-on. Instead of resisting the inevitable hurt that life brings, he chooses to embrace it, suggesting that facing hardship can sometimes feel less burdensome than the emotional struggles we might evade.
Themes
PainCourageStruggleAcceptanceResilience
In practice
Example use cases
During a motivational speech about overcoming life's challenges, this quote can be used to emphasize the importance of facing hardships.
More from Jodi Picoult
All quotes βWhether it was power they sought, or revenge, or love-well, those were all just different forms of hunger. The bigger the hole inside you, the more desperate you became to fill it.
Jodi PicoultRead
she told me she'd be a phoenix." The image of the mythical creature rising from the ashes glitters in my mind. "They don't really exist." "She said that depends on whether or not there's someone who can see them.
Jodi PicoultRead
for 100,000 (dollars), you [can] flatten a house with a wrecking ball. Imagine how much less it [takes] to destroy something than it [does] to build it in the first place.
Jodi PicoultRead
But if you seek forgiveness, doesn't that automatically mean you cannot be a monster? By definition, doesn't that desperation make you human again?
Jodi PicoultRead
when you [lose someone], it feels like the hole in your gum when a tooth falls out. You can chew, you can eat, you have plenty of other teeth, but your tongue keeps going back to that empty place, where all nerves are still a little raw
Jodi PicoultRead
Similar quotes
One isn't born with courage. One develops it by doing small courageous things-in the way that if one sets out to pick up a 100-pound bag of rice, one would be advised to start with a five-pound bag, then 10 pounds, then 20 pounds, and so forth, until one builds up enough muscle to lift the 100-pound bag. It's the same way with courage. You do small courageous things that require some mental and spiritual exertion.
Maya AngelouRead
Women standing up for each other is critically important.
Hillary ClintonRead
My old man says when it's time to be counted, the important thing is to be man enough to stand up.
Robert A. HeinleinRead
My contention is that as long as you have other faculties-the emotional, psychological, intuitive faculties-you haven't lost yourself or even diminished yourself. Don't be ashamed when you're physically limited or dysfunctional; don't think that you're any less because of your condition. In fact, I feel I am even more myself than I was before I got this illness because I have been able to transcend many of the psychological and emotional limitations I had before I developed ALS.
Morrie SchwartzRead
But steel bars have never yet kept out a mob; it takes something a good deal stronger: human courage backed up by the consciousness of being right.
Ray Stannard BakerRead
I would say that I'm a nonviolent soldier. In place of weapons of violence, you have to use your mind, your heart, your sense of humor, every faculty available to you...because no one has the right to take the life of another human being.
Joan BaezRead