I am a person who continually destroys the possibilities of a future because of the numbers of alternative viewpoints I can focus on the present.
Doris LessingRead
The world is only tolerable because of the empty places in it...when the world's filled up, we'll have to get hold of a star. Any star. Venus, or Mars. Get hold of it and leave it empty. Man needs an empty space somewhere for his spirit to rest in.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of empty spaces in life for personal peace and reflection.
Doris Lessing's quote suggests that the world offers a balance between fullness and emptiness, highlighting the necessity of having 'empty places' where individuals can find solace. In a society filled with distractions and demands, these empty spaces allow the spirit to rest and rejuvenate, ultimately leading to a healthier relationship with the world around us. The mention of seeking out stars metaphorically conveys the idea of finding inner peace and tranquility amidst life's chaos.
Themes
EmptinessSpaceBalanceInner PeaceRest
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about mental health, one could emphasize the importance of taking breaks and creating empty spaces in our lives.
More from Doris Lessing
All quotes →In the writing process, the more the story cooks, the better. The brain works for you even when you are at rest. I find dreams particularly useful. I myself think a great deal before I go to sleep and the details sometimes unfold in the dream.
Doris LessingRead
Humanity's legacy of stories and storytelling is the most precious we have. All wisdom is in our stories and songs. A story is how we construct our experiences. At the very simplest, it can be: 'He/she was born, lived, died.' Probably that is the template of our stories - a beginning, middle, and end. This structure is in our minds.
Doris LessingRead
There is a great line of women stretching out behind you into the past, and you have to seek them out and find them in yourself and be conscious of them.
Doris LessingRead
The World War I, I'm a child of World War I. And I really know about the children of war. Because both my parents were both badly damaged by the war. My father, physically, and both mentally and emotionally. So, I know exactly what it's like to be brought up in an atmosphere of a continual harping on the war.
Doris LessingRead
You should write, first of all, to please yourself. You shouldn't care a damn about anybody else at all. But writing can't be a way of life - the important part of writing is living. You have to live in such a way that your writing emerges from it.
Doris LessingRead
Similar quotes
She thought about her life and how lost she’d felt for most of it. She thought about the way that all truths she’d been taught to consider valuable invariably conflicted with the world as it was actually lived. How could a person be so utterly lost, yet remain living?
Douglas CouplandRead
You run and you run to catch up to the sun but it's sinking, racing around to come up behind you again.
Roger WatersRead
What is more insane than to be partakers of the Sacraments of the Lord and not partakers of the words of the Lord? These men truly have to say: "In Thy Name we have eaten and drunk," and they will have to hear: "I do not know you!" (Luke 13:26-27). They eat and drink His Body and Blood in the Sacrament and do not recognize in the Gospel His members spread over the whole world, and for this reason they are not numbered among them at the Judgment.
Saint AugustineRead
During my three years in Vietnam, I certainly heard plenty of last words by dying American footsoldiers. Not one of them, however, had illusions that he had somehow accomplished something worthwhile in the process of making the Supreme Sacrifice.
Kurt VonnegutRead
There is one act par excellence which profanes money by going directly against the law of money, an act for which money is not made. That act is giving.
Jacques EllulRead
Small acts of decency ripple in ways we could never imagine.
Cory BookerRead