Tonight, tonight, won't be just any night. Tonight there will be no morning star.
Stephen SondheimRead
Sometimes people leave you halfway through the wood. Others may decieve you - you decide what's good. You decide alone, but no one is alone. People make mistakes. Fathers, mothers, people make mistakes, holding to their own, thinking they're alone. Honor their mistakes. Fight for their mistakes. Witches can be right. Giants can be good. You decide what's right. You decide what's good.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes personal decision-making and understanding human imperfections.
Stephen Sondheim's quote reflects on the complexities of human relationships and the importance of making individual choices. It highlights that while people may deceive us or leave us feeling abandoned, we must take responsibility for our own decisions about what is right and good. It acknowledges the flaws in everyone, suggesting compassion and honor for others' mistakes while also recognizing our own agency in navigating these relationships. Ultimately, it encourages understanding that no one is truly alone, even in moments of solitude.
Themes
DecisionsMistakesRelationshipsIndividualityCompassion
In practice
Example use cases
During a motivational speech about resilience and decision-making.
More from Stephen Sondheim
All quotes →After the Rodgers and Hammerstein revolution, songs became part of the story, as opposed to just entertainments in between comedy scenes.
Stephen SondheimRead
Musical comedies aren't written, they are rewritten.
Stephen SondheimRead
Let Pirelli's / Miracle Elixir / Activate your roots, sir... Keep it off your boots, sir- / Eats right through. Yes, get Pirelli's! / Use a bottle of it! / Ladies seem to love it... Flies do, too!
Stephen SondheimRead
Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos.
Stephen SondheimRead
Careful the spell you cast, not just on children. Sometimes the spell may last Past what you can see And turn against you... Careful the tale you tell. That is the spell.
Stephen SondheimRead
Similar quotes
Man has always sacrificed truth to his vanity, comfort and advantage. He lives not by truth but by make-believe.
W. Somerset MaughamRead
In lazy apathy let stoics boast, their virtue fixed, 'tis fixed as in a frost.
Alexander PopeRead
PROPERTY, n. Any material thing, having no particular value, that may be held by A against the cupidity of B. Whatever gratifies the passion for possession in one and disappoints it in all others. The object of man's brief rapacity and long indifference.
Ambrose BierceRead
Speech is for the convenience of those who are hard of hearing; but there are many fine things which we cannot say if we have to shout.
Henry David ThoreauRead
Who is there that can adequately gauge the greatness of the humility, gentleness, self-surrender, revealed by the Lord of majesty in assuming human nature, in accepting the punishment of death, the shame of the cross?
Saint BernardRead
Prana is implicate to matter but explicate to mind; mind is implicate to prana but explicate to soul; soul is implicate to mind but explicate to spirit; and the spirit is the source and suchness of the entire sequence.
Ken WilberRead