I can't imagine ever writing anything of any kind on a machine. I never tried to write either poetry or prose on a typewriter. I like to do it on useless paper, scrap paper, because it's of no importance.
W. S. MerwinRead
The story of each stone leads back to a mountain.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Every individual experience connects to a greater narrative or origin.
This quote suggests that each person's story or experience, much like a stone's, is connected to larger, foundational elements that shape their existence. It invites reflection on how our individual lives are intertwined with universal themes and deeper realities, encouraging a sense of belonging to something greater than ourselves.
Themes
StoryExperienceMountainConnectionLife
In practice
Example use cases
During a philosophy class discussion about the interconnectedness of life stories.
More from W. S. Merwin
All quotes βI think there's a kind of desperate hope built into poetry that one really wants, hopelessly, to save the world. One is trying to say everything that can be said for the things that one loves while there's still time.
W. S. MerwinRead
The kind of writing that matters most to me is something you don't learn about. It's constantly coming out of what I don't know rather than what I do know.
W. S. MerwinRead
I say to my breath once again, little breath come from in front of me, go away behind me, row me quietly now, as far as you can, for I am an abyss that I am trying to cross.
W. S. MerwinRead
Through all of youth I was looking for you_x000D_ without knowing what I was looking for_x000D_ part memory part distance remaining _x000D_ mine in the ways that I learn to miss you_x000D_ from what we cannot hold the stars are made.
W. S. MerwinRead
What I really believe is the only hopeful relation between our life and the whole of life is one of reverence and respect and of feeling at one with it. The other attitude which is the one our society is based on is devastating and it is killing the earth and it is killing us too.
W. S. MerwinRead
Similar quotes
If we lived in a State where virtue was profitable, common sense would make us good, and greed would make us saintly. And we'd live like animals or angels in the happy land that /needs/ no heroes. But since in fact we see that avarice, anger, envy, pride, sloth, lust and stupidity commonly profit far beyond humility, chastity, fortitude, justice and thought, and have to choose, to be human at all... why then perhaps we /must/ stand fast a little --even at the risk of being heroes.
Robert BoltRead
The disappearance of a sense of responsibility is the most far-reaching consequence of submission to authority.
Stanley MilgramRead
The root of all superstition is that men observe when a thing hits, but not when it misses.
Francis BaconRead
If it were possible to have a life absolutely free from every feeling of sin, what a terrifying vacuum it would be.
Cesare PaveseRead
I have suffered from being misunderstood, but I would have suffered a hell of a lot more if I had been understood.
Clarence DarrowRead
The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased.
Alexander HamiltonRead