If I had been born in the circus, my parents would have pushed me on that little high wire at four years old. That's when the body is most limber to learn those acrobatics.
Stones taught me to fly_x000D_ Love taught me to lie_x000D_ And life taught me to die_x000D_ So it's not hard to fall_x000D_ When you float like a cannonball.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the lessons learned from experiences, including love and existence, suggesting that falling is inevitable when one has lofty aspirations.
In this quote, Damien Rice uses powerful imagery to convey the complexities of life, love, and loss. The speaker draws attention to various hardships and educations received from personal experiences—where stones symbolize hardship or challenges, love represents deception or vulnerability, and life signifies the ultimate reality of death. The phrase 'float like a cannonball' suggests that high expectations or dreams can lead to profound falls, emphasizing that the journey of life is fraught with difficulties despite aspirations to soar.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
A motivational speaker might use this quote to discuss the importance of resilience after setbacks.
Similar quotes
I guess I just process death differently than some folks. Realizing you're not going to see that person again is always the most difficult part about it. But that feeling settles, and then you are glad you had that person in your life, and then the happiness and the sadness get all swirled up inside you.
We have reached the age, those of us to whom fortune has assigned a post in life's struggle, when beaten and smashed and biffed by the lashing of the dragon's tail, we begin to appreciate that the old man was not such a fool after all. We saw our parents wrestling with the same dragon, and we thought, though we never spoke a thought aloud, 'Why doesn't he hit him on the head?' Alas, comrads, we know now. We have hit the dragon on the head and we have seen the dragon smile.
She makes life over, he realized. She controls life, whereas I just sit on my can and let it happen to me.
It's so jarring to go from Baghdad to Cambridge, to go from a place where people are fighting and striving and dying to a place where the biggest concern is what kind of cheese to put in your sandwich.
Live your life like you're 80 looking back on your teenager years. You know if your dad calls you at eight in the morning and asks if you want to go out for breakfast. As a teenager you're like no, I want to sleep. But as an eighty year old looking back you have that breakfast with your dad. It just little things like that, that helped me when I was a teenager in terms of making choices you won't regret.