It does not seem to me that I have the right to foist a story on people, most of whom are children who should be learning all the time, unless I am learning from it too.
Diana Wynne JonesRead
I don’t think I will get married,” Polly said as she stood up. “I’m going to train to be a hero instead.
Interpretation
Choosing personal development over traditional paths can lead to meaningful contributions to society.
In this quote, Polly asserts her intention to prioritize her own journey of self-discovery and heroism over societal expectations like marriage. This highlights the importance of personal choices that align with one's values and aspirations, encouraging individuals to pursue their own definitions of success and fulfillment.
In practice
During a graduation speech to inspire the graduates to follow their passions.
It does not seem to me that I have the right to foist a story on people, most of whom are children who should be learning all the time, unless I am learning from it too.
Imagination doesn’t just mean making things up. It means thinking things through, solving them, or hoping to do so, and being just distant enough to be able to laugh at things that are normally painful. Head teachers would call this escapism, but they would be entirely wrong. I would call fantasy the most serious, and the most useful, branch of writing there is. And this is why I don’t, and never would, write Real Books.
Woe to the man who is always busy - hurried in a turmoil of engagements, from occupation to occupation, and with no seasons interposed of recollection, contemplation and repose! Such a man must inevitably be gross and vulgar, and hard and indelicate - the sort of man with whom no generous spirit would desire to hold intercourse.
He who works with the door open gets all kinds of interruptions, but he also occasionally gets clues as to what the world is and what might be important.
We need to forgive ourselves. For all the things we didn't do. All the things we should have done. You can't get stuck on the regrets of what should have happened.
The things you get fired for when you’re young are the same things that you get lifetime achievement awards for when you’re old.
It is of great use to the sailor to know the length of his line, though he cannot with it fathom all the depths of the ocean.
I was trying to prove to them and to myself that I was still who I had always been. I was beautiful, if fat. I was smart, if loud. I was good, if ruined.
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