Quotes About Belonging

We have reached a state of individuation in which only the fully developed mature personality can make fruitful use of freedom; if the individual has not developed his reason and his capacity for love, he is incapable of bearing the burden of freedom and individuality, and tries to escape into artificial ties which give him a sense of belonging and rootedness.

The only haven for having a sense of identity is conformity. Being acceptable really means not being different from anybody else. Feeling inferior stems from feeling different, and no question is asked whether the difference is for the better or the worse.

Religion and nationalism, as well as any custom and any belief however absurd and degrading, if it only connects the individual with others, are reduced from what man dreads: isolation

Unless he belonged somewhere, unless his life had some meaning and direction, he would feel like a particle of dust and be overcome by his individual insignificance.

I am no longer a shuddering speck of existence, alone in the darkness;--I belong to them and they to me; we all share the same fear and the same life...I could bury my face in them, in these voices, these words that have saved me and will stand by me.

I am no longer a shuddering speck of existence, alone in the darkness; - I belong to them and they to me; we all share the same fear and the same life, we are nearer than lovers, in a simpler, a harder way; I could bury my face in them, in these voices, these words that have saved me and will stand by me.

Sweet words. Gentle deceptive balm. Help, love, to belong together, to come back again— words, sweet words. Nothing but words. How many words existed for this simple, wild, cruel attraction of two bodies! What a rainbow of imagination, lies, sentiment, and self-deception enclosed it!

State and home country, there's a difference

Maailmas jätkub kõige jaoks kohta. Ainult mitte inimese jaoks.

Eugénie, all refugees are not Jews. Not even all Jews are Jews. And many of whom you wouldn't believe it are Jews. I even knew a Jewish Negro once. He was a terribly lonely man. The only thing he loved was Chinese food. That's how life is.

I breathe deeply and say over to myself: - 'You are at home. You are at home.' But a sense of strangeness will not leave me, I cannot feel at home amongst these things . . . I am not myself there. There is a distance, a veil between us.

Es piece?os un p?rlaižu acis istabai. Griesti ir zemi un sl?pi, un telpa nav liela, bet man taj? ir viss, kas vajadz?gs, - gulta, plaukts ar gr?mat?m, galds, p?ris kr?slu un vecas klavieres.

Unser Fehler ist, dass wir weder wirklich dumm noch wirklich gescheit sind. Immer so dazwischen, wie Affen in den Ästen. Das macht müde und manchmal traurig. Der Mensch muss wissen, wohin er gehört.

Vientul?ba mekl? ce?abiedru un nejaut?, kas vi?š ir. Kurš to nezina, nekad nav bijis vientu?š, bet tikai viens.

but a sense of strangeness will not leave me. I cannot feel at home among these things. There is my mother, there is my sister, there my case of butterflies, and there the mahogony piano, but I am not myself there. There is a distance, a veil between us.

I hadn't failed, I had gained a second, heaven-sent life with Helen—and even the despair that had come to me and still haunted my sleep from time to time was possible only because there had been something else: Paris, Helen, and the unbelievable feeling of not being alone.

Ich bin nicht mehr ein zitterndes Stück Dasein allein im Dunkel - ich gehöre zu ihnen und sie zu mir, wir haben alle die gleiche Angst und das gleiche Leben, wir sind verbunden auf eine einfache und schwere Art. Ich möchte mein Gesicht in sie hineindrücken, in die Stimmen, diese paar Worte, die mich gerettet haben und die mir beistehen werden.

Un kas mums Ä«stenÄ«b? pieder? Kam tik daudz uz­traukties par liet?m, kuras lab?kaj? gadÄ«jum? dotas mums tikai uz zin?mu laiku; un kam tik daudz pr?tot par to, kuram m??otais cilvÄ"ks vair?k vai maz?k piederÄ"jis, ja iluzorais v?rds "piederÄ"t" nenozÄ«mÄ" neko vair?k k? — apskaut tukÅ¡u gaisu?

I breathe deeply and say over to myself:- You are at home, you are at home. But a sense of strangeness will not leave me, I cannot feel at home amongst these things. There is my mother, there is my sister, there my case of butterflies, and there the mahogany piano - but I am not myself there. There is a distance, a veil between us.

I have always been taught to be proud of being Latina, proud of being Mexican, and I was. I was probably more proud of being a label than of being a human being, that's the way most of us were taught.

Families aren't easy to join. They're like an exclusive country club where membership makes impossible demands and the dues for an outsider are exorbitant.

Better not to be oneself, better to live tucked into others, embedded in a safe framework of social and cultural obligations and duties.

Our task for the future is exploring what it means for each individual to be a member of earth's household, a commonwealth of kindred beings. Whether we will use our freedom to encapsulate ourselves in narrow, tribal, paranoid personalities and create more bloody Utopias or to form compassionate communities of the abandoned is still to be decided.

It is nationalism which engenders nations, and not the other way round.