QuoteProject
Sorry is the Kool-Aid of human emotions. It's what you say when you spill a cup of coffee or throw a gutter ball when you're bowling with the girls in the league. True sorrow is as rare as true love.
Stephen King
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote highlights the superficiality of quick apologies versus the depth of real sorrow.

Stephen King's quote compares superficial apologies to a common drink, suggesting they are often used to address minor mistakes rather than expressing genuine remorse. True sorrow, he points out, is a profound emotion that is seldom felt and is as rare as true love, emphasizing the importance of sincerity in our expressions of regret and emotional experiences.

Themes

ApologySorrowEmotionsRelationshipsGenuine

In practice

Example use cases

In a reflection on personal growth, one might use this quote to discuss the significance of sincere apologies.

More from Stephen King

Try any goddam thing you like, no matter how boringly normal or outrageous. If it works, fine. If it doesn't, toss it. Toss it even if you love it.
Stephen KingRead
Eddie discovered one of his childhood's great truths. Grownups are the real monsters, he thought.
Stephen KingRead
Hairstyles change, and skirt lengths, and slang, but high school administrations? Never.
Stephen KingRead
Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the reader’s.
Stephen KingRead
That's the day's business. Thinking. Thinking and isolation, because it doesn't matter if you pass the time of day with someone or not; in the end, you're alone. He seemed to have put in as many miles in his brain as he had with his feet. The thoughts kept coming and there was no way to deny them.
Stephen KingRead
Late last night and the night before, tommyknockers, tommyknockers knocking on my door. I wanna go out, don't know if I can 'cuz I'm so afraid of the tommyknocker man.
Stephen KingRead

Similar quotes

My parents had to go to Ohio to get married in 1965 because it was still illegal in Mississippi. My white father and black mother.
Natasha TretheweyRead
People ask me all the time, 'Why did I move home?' As well as I can articulate it, that's why. I moved home because I love the community that I come from.
Jesmyn WardRead
When I think about [characters], I like to think of them in their relationships to each other. In the same way, I think that's how humans are ultimately defined. We are our relationships to one another. And a lot of what's interesting about us happens in the context of other people.
John GreenRead
Every human walks around with a certain kind of sadness. They may not wear it on their sleeves, but it's there if you look deep.
Taraji P. HensonRead
A desire to be observed, considered, esteemed, praised, beloved, and admired by his fellows is one of the earliest as well as the keenest dispositions discovered in the heart of man.
John AdamsRead
Let me claim that Africa and I kept company for a while and then parted ways as if we were both party to relations with a failed outcome. Or say I was afflicted with Africa like a bout of a rare disease from which I have not managed a full recovery.
Barbara KingsolverRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.