Sadness is more or less like a head cold - with patience, it passes. Depression is like cancer.
Barbara KingsolverRead
Wherever I am, let me never forget to distinguish want from need
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of recognizing the difference between our wants and needs in life.
Barbara Kingsolver's quote serves as a reminder to prioritize our basic necessities over mere desires. In a world filled with consumerism and distractions, distinguishing between what we genuinely need for our well-being and what we simply want can lead to a more fulfilling and contented life. It encourages mindfulness and gratitude, fostering a deeper appreciation for the essentials that sustain us.
Themes
WantNeedDistinguishMindfulnessPrioritize
In practice
Example use cases
During a motivational talk on living simply, this quote can be used to illustrate the importance of understanding our true needs.
More from Barbara Kingsolver
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I'm of a fearsome mind to throw my arms around every living librarian who crosses my path, on behalf of the souls they never knew they saved.
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I did it to win love, and to prove myself capable. Not to move mountains. In my opinions, mountains don't move. They only look changed when you look down on them from great height.
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Memory is a complicated thing, a relative to truth, but not its twin.
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Empathy is really the opposite of spiritual meanness. It's the capacity to understand that every war is both won and lost. And that someone else's pain is as meaningful as your own.
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A musk deer searches for the source of the fragrance of musk, but it won't find it because the fragrance comes from within itself. Bliss is not to be found outside of us; it exists within us.
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One whose knowledge is confined to books and whose wealth is in the possession of others, can use neither his knowledge nor wealth when the need for them arises.
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Only liars manage to always be out during bad times and in during good times.
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Sometimes it seems especially difficult to submit to "great tribulation" when we look around and see others seemingly much less obedient who triumph even as we weep. But time is measured only unto man, says Alma (see Alma 40:8), and God has a very good memory.
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