Poetry is a street fighter. It has sharp elbows. It can look after itself. Poetry can't be used for manipulation; it's why you never see good poetry in advertising.
David WhyteRead
The price of our vitality is the sum of all our fears
Interpretation
What this quote means
Our experiences and energy in life come with the cost of facing our fears.
David Whyte's quote suggests that the essence of living fully and vibrantly is inherently tied to confronting and understanding our fears. These fears can often hold us back, but by acknowledging them, we pay a price that enriches our vitality and existence. In essence, to truly embrace life, one must be willing to face the challenges that fear presents.
Themes
VitalityFearsLifeCourageFear
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about overcoming personal challenges.
More from David Whyte
All quotes βPoetry is often the art of overhearing yourself say things you didn't know you knew. It is a learned skill to force yourself to articulate your life, your present world or your possibilities for the future.
David WhyteRead
By definition, poetry works with qualities and dynamics that mainstream society is reluctant to face head-on. It's an interesting phenomenon that by necessity, poetry is just below the radar.
David WhyteRead
The severest test of work today, is not of our strategies, but of our imaginations and identities.
David WhyteRead
We learn, grow and become compassionate and generous as much through exile as homecoming, as much through loss as gain, as much through giving things away as in receiving what we believe to be our due.
David WhyteRead
What if the world is holding its breath - _x000D_ waiting for you to take the place that only you can fill?
David WhyteRead
Similar quotes
The Kingdom of God is Within You.
Leo TolstoyRead
Thus passing through the infinite varieties of space we reach the Divine space which is absolutely free from all dimensions and constitutes the meeting point of all infinities.
Muhammad IqbalRead
... when the struggle seems to be drifting definitely towards a world social democracy, there may still be very great delays and disappointments before it becomes an efficient and beneficent world system. Countless people ... will hate the New World Order and will die protesting against it. When we attempt to evaluate its promise, we have to bear in mind the distress of a generation or so of malcontents, many of them quite gallant and graceful-looking people.
H. G. WellsRead
Although our intellect always longs for clarity and certainty, our nature often finds uncertainty fascinating.
Carl Von ClausewitzRead
At the time I did not know that stories of life are often more like rivers than books.
Norman MacleanRead
If I have advocated the cause of the Negro, it is not because I am a Negro, but because I am a man.
Frederick DouglassRead