We have to realize that we are as deeply afraid to live and to love as we are to die.
R. D. LaingRead
Pain in this life is not avoidable, but the pain we create avoiding pain is avoidable.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Pain is a natural part of life, but we can choose how we respond to it.
This quote by R. D. Laing emphasizes that while experiencing pain is an inevitable aspect of life, the suffering we cause ourselves in an attempt to avoid that pain is within our control. It speaks to the importance of facing our challenges and emotions instead of trying to escape them, suggesting that this avoidance may lead to greater suffering than the pain itself.
Themes
PainSufferingControlResponseAvoidance
In practice
Example use cases
During a motivational speech on resilience, one might use this quote to encourage individuals to face their hardships.
More from R. D. Laing
All quotes βMadness need not be all breakdown. It may also be break-through. It is potential liberation and renewal as well as enslavement and existential death.
R. D. LaingRead
Whether life is worth living depends on whether there is love in life.
R. D. LaingRead
The experience and behavior that gets labeled schizophrenic is a special strategy that a person invents in order to live in an unlivable situation.
R. D. LaingRead
The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice.
R. D. LaingRead
Here we have the paradox, the potentially tragic paradox, that our relatedness to others is an essential aspect of our being, as is our separateness, but any particular person is not a necessary part of our being.
R. D. LaingRead
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