Pain and guilt can't be taken away with the wave of a magic wand. They're the things we carry with us, the things that make us who we are. If we lose them, we lose ourselves. I don't want my pain taken away! I need my pain!
Interpretation
Pain and guilt are essential parts of our identity and experiences.
This quote emphasizes that pain and guilt are not just burdens to be eliminated but integral to our existence and personal growth. William Shatner reflects on how these feelings shape our character and help define who we are; losing them might mean losing a crucial part of ourselves.
In practice
In a motivational speech about resilience and personal growth.
What have I done? I've blundered my way through life. So I have my picture on the wall. The minute I die, that picture will start to yellow and fade and eventually be gone. Blown in the wind and become part of the molecular structure of something else. These things we see as "success," they're non-accomplishments.
Marriage is a reflection of your life in general: how you treat people, how you argue, how secure you are in your own thoughts. How vehemently do you argue your point of view? With what disdain do you view the other's point of view?
The ability to breathe the air and drink the water will be what the wars will be about from here on in. And it's coming with alarming rapidity.
Don't be afraid of making an ass of yourself. I do it all the time and look what I got.
Has it ever occurred to you that how we deal with death is at least as important as how we deal with life?
It is goodness that gives to a neighborhood its beauty. One who is free to choose, yet does not prefer to dwell among the good - how can he be accorded the name of wise?
Agriculture is now a motorized food industry, the same thing in its essence as the production of corpses in the gas chambers and the extermination camps, the same thing as blockades and the reduction of countries to famine, the same thing as the manufacture of hydrogen bombs.
We are, after all, only trustees of the wealth we possess. Without the community and its resources... there would be little wealth for anyone.
I never understood why when you died, you didn't just vanish, everything could just keep going on the way it was only you just wouldn't be there. I always thought I'd like my own tombstone to be blank. No epitaph, and no name. Well, actually, I'd like it to say 'figment.'
Doctrine is useless if it is not accompanied by a holy life. It is worse than useless; it does positive harm. Something of 'the image of Christ' must be seen and observed by others in our private life, and habits, and character, and doings.
I know how young black men are seen. They're boys - scared little boys, oftentimes. I was one of them. I was completely afraid of the Los Angeles Police Department.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.