I made a wish on this tree years ago," Marco says. "What did you wish for?" Bailey asks. Marco leans forward and whispers in Bailey's ear. "I wished for her.
I worry hope will crush me, the way love has so many times before. Are they so different, hope and love? O & E in the same place, half of the other in each word. Both swimming in unknowns. I’ve been through the big changes. These ones should seem easier in comparison, I should be more prepared, but they don’t and I’m not. Sometimes I feel like a broken-wing butterfly, clinging to a window screen. Afraid to let go. Afraid to stay. Wondering how much wing is enough to fly.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects the vulnerability and fear associated with hope and love, highlighting their interconnectedness and the struggle with change.
Erin Morgenstern's quote conveys the complex emotions surrounding hope and love, suggesting that they are intertwined and often lead to pain and uncertainty. The imagery of a 'broken-wing butterfly' symbolizes the fear of embracing change, feeling inadequate to break free, and the struggle of balancing the desire to take risks against the inherent fear of failure. This deep emotional reflection resonates with anyone who has faced the challenges of hope and love, illustrating the delicate balance between courage and fear.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about overcoming personal struggles.
More from Erin Morgenstern
All quotes →Good and evil are a great deal more complex than a princess and a dragon . . . is not the dragon the hero of his own story?
Trapped in silence, Marco traces apologies and adorations across Celia's body with his tongue. Mutely expressing all the things he cannot speak aloud. He finds other ways to tell her, his fingers leaving faint trails of ink in their wake. He savors every sound he elicits from her. The entire room trembles as they come together. And though there are a great many fragile objects contained within it, nothing breaks.
It is perhaps both a blessing and a curse that fictional worlds spring into my mind nearly fully formed and it takes quite a while to sift through everything to find the story.
Widge can see the past." Poppet says suddenly. "That's why his stories are so good." "The past is easier," Widget says. "It's already there." "In the stars?" Bailey asks. "No." Widget says. "On people. The past stays on you the way powdered sugar stays on fingers. Some people can get rid of it but it's still there, the events and t hings that pushed you to where you are now.
There is so much that glows in the circus, from flames to lanterns to stars. I have heard the expression “trick of the light” applied to sights within Le Cirque des Reves so frequently that I sometimes suspect the entirety of the circus is itself a complex illusion of illumination” .
Similar quotes
A good rule of thumb for many things in life holds that things take longer to happen than you think they will, and then happen faster than you thought they could.
A man who fears nothing is a man who loves nothing; and if you love nothing, what joy is there in your life?
I had been riding horses before my memory kicked in, so my life with horses had no beginning. It simply appeared from the fog of infancy. I survived a difficult childhood by traveling on the backs of horses, and in adulthood the pattern didn't change.
I think it's my adventure, my trip, my journey, and I guess my attitude is, let the chips fall where they may.
Life is a game like any other; we just don't take it as seriously.
Our house was littered with books- in the kitchen, under the beds, stuck between the couch pillows--far too many for her the ever finish. I suppose I thought if my grandmother kept up her interests, she wouldn't die; she'd have to stay around to finish the books she was so fond of. "I've got to get to the bottom of this one," she'd say, as if a book were no different from a pond or a lake. I thought she'd go on reading forever but it didn't work out that way.