There was brotherhood between people who had fed from the same breast, a kinship that even time could not break. - Amir
Khaled HosseiniRead
You're gutless. It's how you were made. And that's not such a bad thing because your saving grace is that you've never lied to yourself about it. Not about that. Nothing wrong with cowardice as long as it comes with prudence. But when a coward stops remembering who he is... God help him.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Acknowledge your true self and be cautious; cowardice can coexist with wisdom.
In this quote, Khaled Hosseini presents the idea that recognizing one's limitations and fears is not a weakness but rather a form of self-awareness. He emphasizes that while it is acceptable to be cowardly, it becomes dangerous when one forgets their true nature, suggesting that self-honesty and understanding are crucial for personal integrity and safety.
Themes
CowardiceCourageSelf-AwarenessPrudenceTruth
In practice
Example use cases
During a motivational speech to encourage honesty about weaknesses.
More from Khaled Hosseini
All quotes →I don't outline at all; I don't find it useful, and I don't like the way it boxes me in. I like the element of surprise and spontaneity, of letting the story find its own way.
Khaled HosseiniRead
And that's the thing about people who mean everything they say. They think everyone else does too.
Khaled HosseiniRead
Perspective [is] a luxury when your head [is] constantly buzzing with a swarm of demons.
Khaled HosseiniRead
The desert weed lives on, but the flower of spring blooms and wilts.
Khaled HosseiniRead
It would be erroneous to say Sohrab was quiet. Quiet is peace. Tranquility. Quiet is turning down the volume knob on life. Silence is pushing the off button. Shutting it down. All of it. Sohrab's silence wasn't the self imposed silence of those with convictions, of protesters who seek to speak their cause by not speaking at all. It was the silence of one who has taken cover in a dark place, curled up all the edges and tucked them under.
Khaled HosseiniRead
Similar quotes
After one look at this planet any visitor from outer space would say 'I want to see the manager.'
William S. BurroughsRead
God's blessings are dispensed according to the riches of his grace, not according to the depth of our faith.
Max LucadoRead
Reverie is commonly classified among the phenomena of psychic detente. It is lived out in a relaxed time which has no linking force. Since it functions with inattention, it is often without memory. It is a flight from out of the real that does not always find a consistent unreal world.
Gaston BachelardRead
It was the combination of many factors... With most people, suicide is like Russian roulette. Only one chamber has a bullet. With the Lisbon girls, the gun was loaded. A bullet for family abuse. A bullet for genetic predisposition. A bullet for historical malaise. A bullet for inevitable momentum. The other two bullets are impossible to name, but that doesn't mean the chambers were empty.
Jeffrey EugenidesRead
...True prayer is measured by weight, not by length. A single groan before God may have more fullness of prayer in it than a fine oration of great length.
Charles SpurgeonRead
Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that's the inheritor of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply. Let him not laugh too gladly when the water runs through his fingers, nor stand too silent when the setting sun makes red the veld with fire. Let him not be too moved when the birds of his land are singing. Nor give too much of his heart to a mountain or a valley. For fear will rob him if he gives too much.
Alan PatonRead