Mysticism and exaggeration go together. A mystic must not fear ridicule if he is to push all the way to the limits of humility or the limits of delight.
Milan KunderaRead
. . .only the victims and survivors can truly comprehend the awfulness of that time and place; the rest of us live on the other side of the fence, staring through from our own comfortable place, trying in our own clumsy ways to make sense of it all.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Only those who directly experience trauma can fully understand its impact.
This quote emphasizes that true comprehension of suffering and trauma is restricted to those who have lived through it. Others may observe or sympathize from a distance, but their understanding remains limited, as they do not share the same experiences or emotions of the victims and survivors.
Themes
UnderstandingTraumaExperienceVictimsSurvivors
In practice
Example use cases
In a presentation about historical events, one might use this quote to highlight the perspective of those directly affected.
Similar quotes
Silence has been destroyed, but also the idea that it's important to learn how another person thinks, to enter the mind of another person. The whole idea of empathy is gone. We are now part of this giant machine where every second we have to take out a device and contribute our thoughts and opinions.
Gary ShteyngartRead
To think well is to serve God in the interior court.
Thomas TraherneRead
Our Heavenly Father has provided many delightful inns for us along our journey, but he takes great care to see that we do not mistake any of them for home.
C. S. LewisRead
You throw a stone into a deep pond. Splash. The sound is big, and it reverberates throughout the surrounding area. What comes out of the pond after that? All we can do is stare at the pond, holding our breath.
Haruki MurakamiRead
Private prayer is like straw scattered here and there: If you set it on fire it makes a lot of little flames. But gather these straws into a bundle and light them, and you get a mighty fire, rising like a column into the sky; public prayer is like that.
John VianneyRead