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There is not one big cosmic meaning for all, there is only the meaning we each give to our life, an individual meaning, an individual plot, like an individual novel, a book for each person.
Anais Nin
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Each person creates their own unique meaning in life rather than adhering to a universal truth.

Anais Nin emphasizes the idea that life does not have a singular, overarching meaning applicable to everyone. Instead, she encourages individuals to craft their own personal narratives and interpretations of existence, highlighting that each life is akin to a unique novel shaped by personal experiences and perceptions.

Themes

MeaningLifeIndividualNarrativePhilosophy

In practice

Example use cases

In a motivational speech about personal growth, one might say, 'As Anais Nin stated, there is no single meaning to life; we each create our own stories.'

More from Anais Nin

The poet is one who is able to keep the fresh vision of the child alive.
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Anxiety is love's greatest killer, because it is like the stranglehold of the drowning.
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We celebrate peace. Yet we pay no attention to the ways of curing aggression in human beings. And when one sees in psychoanalysis hostility disappearing as people conquer their fears, one wonders if the cure is not there.
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The impetus to grow and live intensely is so powerful in me I cannot resist it. I will work, I will love my husband, but I will fulfill myself.
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We have been poisoned by fairy tales.
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But I lie. I embellish. My words are not deep enough. They disguise, they conceal. I will not rest until I have told of my descent into a sensuality which was as dark, as magnificent, as wild, as my moments of mystic creation have been dazzling, ecstatic, exalted.
Anais NinRead

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