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
When you're young you think that you're going to sail into a lovely lake of quietude and peace. This is profoundly untrue.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Youth often brings an illusion of a calm and peaceful life that is not reflective of reality.
Doris Lessing's quote emphasizes the misconception that youth gives rise to a life filled with tranquility and ease. She argues that this belief is fundamentally flawed, as life is often filled with challenges and turbulence, regardless of one's age. The quote serves as a reminder that facing difficulties is an integral part of the human experience, and that the journey is rarely as idyllic as one might hope in their younger years.
Themes
YouthIllusionLifeChallengesReality
In practice
Example use cases
A motivational speech addressing young graduates about the realities of adulthood.
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
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