“We are only what we know, and I wished to be so much more than I was, sorely.”
In this quote by David Mitchell, the speaker conveys a sense of longing and dissatisfaction with himself. The idea that "we are only what we know" suggests that our knowledge and experiences shape our identity. The use of the word "sorely" emphasizes the speaker's deep desire to be more than what he currently is. This quote speaks to the universal human experience of striving for self-improvement and personal growth.
In the quote by David Mitchell, we are reminded of the importance of knowledge in shaping our identity and aspirations. However, in today's fast-paced world filled with endless information at our fingertips, it is crucial to reflect on the quality of knowledge we are acquiring and how it aligns with our personal growth and development.
"We are only what we know, and I wished to be so much more than I was, sorely.” - David Mitchell
In this quote by David Mitchell, the idea of knowledge shaping our identity is explored. As you reflect on this quote, consider the following questions:
“It was only a wasp,’ I say, ‘there are plenty more where they came from.’ This is not good enough for Tomomi: ‘There are plenty more humans where we come from, so does that make homicide okay?”
“Human life, Borges said, is a cascade of possible directions, and we take only one, or we perceive that we take only one—which is how novels are written, too. You start with a blank page, and the first word opens up possibilities for the second word. If your first word is Call, those second two or three could be a doctor or it could be me Ishmael. It could be Call girls on Saturday nights generally cost more than . . . The second sentence opens up a multitude of third sentences, and on we go through that denseness of choices taken and choices not taken, swinging our machetes.”
“& only as you gasp your dying breath shall you understand, your life amounted to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean!Yet what is any ocean but a multitude of drops?”
“Two old people in a room devoid of furniture, steam rising from their teacups. They were motionless and expressionless. Waiting for something. I wish I could go into their room and sit down with them. I'd give them my Rolex for that. I wish they would smile, and pour me a cup of jasmine tea. I wish the world was like that.”
“I put it to the great man [Hitchcock], the key to fictitious terror is partition or containment: so long as the Bates Motel is sealed off from our world, we want to peer in, like at a scorpion enclosure. But a film that shows the world is a Bates Motel, well, that's... the stuff of Buchloe, dystopia, depression. We'll dip our toes in a predatory, amoral, godless unive3rse, but only our toes.”
“We - by whom I mean anyone over sixty - commit two offenses just by existing. One is Lack of Velocity. We drive too slowly, walk too slowly, talk too slowly. The world will do business with dictators, perverts, and drug barons of all stripes, but being slowed down it cannot abide. Our second offence is being Everyman's memento mori. The world can only get comfy in shiny-eyed denial if we are out of sight.”