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"It marked the beginning and, of course, an end. At that moment a chapter, no, a whole stage of my closed. Had I known, and had there been a spare second or two, I might have allowed myself a little nostalgia."
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"When you leave a port, ask yourself two questions: What mark you have made on that port and what have you learned from that port?"
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Personal Development
"Whether you are aware of it or not, your life is still disappearing. It's pouring out, it keeps diminishing."
Author Name
Personal Development
"You never know what people have endured to get where they are."
Author Name
Personal Development
"Why do you compare yourself to others? Can you carry weight of others on your shoulders?"
Author Name
Personal Development
"Everyone should think about why certain undesirable situations occur in life."
Author Name
Personal Development
"Knowing my soul is my lifetime-study."
Author Name
Personal Development
"What you are seeking is yourself."
Author Name
Personal Development
"Life is head and shoulders above all other things we regard as precious in this world."
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Personal Development
"The world is full of vanities."
Author Name
Personal Development
"Many writers, especially male ones, have told us that it is the decease of the father which opens the prospect of one's own end, and affords an unobstructed view of the undug but awaiting grave that says 'you're next.' Unfilial as this may seem, that was not at all so in my own case. It was only when I watched Alexander [my own son] being born that I knew at once that my own funeral director had very suddenly, but quite unmistakably, stepped onto the stage. I was surprised by how calmly I took this, but also by how reluctant I was to mention it to my male contemporaries."
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Personal Development
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"Revenge may be exacted a hundred times over in one sleepless night. The impulse, the dreaming intention, is human, normal, and we should forgive ourselves. But the raised hand, the actual violent enactment, is cursed. The maths says so. There'll be no reversion to the status quo ante, no balm, no sweet relief, or none that lasts. Only a second crime. Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves, Confucius said. Revenge unstitches a civilisation. It's a reversion to constant, visceral fear."
Morality
"Especially difficult when the first and best unconscious move of a dedicated liar is to persuade himself he's sincere. And once he's sincere, all deception vanishes."
Truth
"While my friends struggled and calculated, I reached a solution by a set of floating steps that were partly visual, partly just a feeling for what was right. It was hard to explain how I knew what I knew."
Wisdom
"One important theme is the extent to which one can ever correct an error, especially outside any frame of religious forgiveness. All of us have done something we regret - how we manage to remove that from our conscience, or whether that's even possible, interested me."
Regret
"Perhaps I'd been a slow developer, but I was well into my forties before I realized that you don't have to comply with a request just because it's reasonable or reasonably put. Age is the great dis-obliger. You can be yourself and say no."
Wisdom
"It's the essence of a degenerating mind periodically, to lose all sense of continuous self, and therefore any regard for what others think of your lack of continuity."
Psychology
"He wanted a father, and for the same reason, he wanted to be a father."
Family
"When he thought of her, it rather amazed him, that he had let that girl with her violin go. Now, of course, he saw that her self-effacing proposal was quite irrelevant. All she had needed was the certainty of his love, and his reassurance that there was no hurry when a lifetime lay ahead of them. Love and patience- if only he had had them both at once- would surely have seen them both through."
Relationship
"The constrained lives of his characters made me wonder how my own existence might appear in his hands."
Literature
"Memory's got nothing to do with years. You remember what you remember."
Life
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