There's life for you. Spend the best years of your life studying penmanship and rhetoric and syntax and Beowulf and George Eliot, and then somebody steals your pencil.
Dorothy ParkerRead
If wild my breast and sore my pride, I bask in dreams of suicide, If cool my heart and high my head I think 'How lucky are the dead.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the contrasts between despair and contentment in the face of mortality.
Dorothy Parker's quote captures the complex emotions surrounding life and death. It expresses a sense of turmoil and pride when dealing with painful feelings, while also presenting a romanticized sorrowful contemplation of death, suggesting that those who have passed might be at peace compared to the struggles of the living. The juxtaposition of suffering and the serene acceptance of death denotes a profound philosophical inquiry into existence and the human psyche.
Themes
LifeDeathDespairMortalitySuffering
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about mental health awareness at a community event.
More from Dorothy Parker
All quotes βMy land is bare of chattering folk; / the clouds are low along the ridges, / and sweet's the air with curly smoke / from all my burning bridges.
Dorothy ParkerRead
Prince or commoner, tenor or bass, Painter or plumber or never-do-well, Do me a favor and shut your face - Poets alone should kiss and tell.
Dorothy ParkerRead
They say of me, and so they should, It's doubtful if I come to good. I see acquaintances and friends Accumulating dividends And making enviable names In science, art and parlor games. But I, despite expert advice, Keep doing things I think are nice, And though to good I never come Inseparable my nose and thumb.
Dorothy ParkerRead
It is that word 'hunny,' my darlings, that marks the first place in The House at Pooh Corner at which Tonstant Weader fwowed up.
Dorothy ParkerRead
I canβt write five words but that I change seven.
Dorothy ParkerRead
Similar quotes
Forming grammatically correct sentences is for the normal individual the prerequisite for any submission to social laws. No one is supposed to be ignorant of grammaticality; those who are belong in special institutions. The unity of language is fundamentally political.
Gilles DeleuzeRead
Religion is like a knife: you can either use it to cut bread, or stick in someone's back.
Desmond TutuRead
There is not, in the Constitution, a syllable that implies that persons, born within the territorial limits of the United States, have allegiance imposed upon them on account of their birth in the country, or that they will be judged by any different rule, on the subject of treason, than persons of foreign birth.
Lysander SpoonerRead
You must trust and believe in people or life becomes impossible.
Anton ChekhovRead
Away with the cant of 'Measures not men!'-the idle supposition that it is the harness and not the horses that draw the chariot along.
George CanningRead
If you look at other countries, you see they have different values: defend more, pass the ball out more, winning is holy. In England, you could say that sport itself is holy. They say, 'Look, guys, it's about more than just winning.'
Johan CruyffRead