Oh, why does compassion weaken us?' It doesn't, really .. Somewhere where it all balances out - don't the philosophers have a name for it, the perfect place, the place where the answers live? - if we could go there, you could see it doesn't. It only looks, a little bit, like it does, from here, like an ant at the foot of an oak tree. He doesn't have a clue that it's a tree; it's the beginning of the wall round the world, to him. . Robin McKinley
About This Quote

In the story “A Tree Grows In Brooklyn” by Betty Smith, a woman named Francie Nolan lives in Brooklyn with her family. While Francie loves her family and tries to take care of her siblings, she feels an emptiness inside and spends hours daydreaming about what it must be like for others in New York City. To help her understand her own situation she visits an older woman named Marie and talks to the woman in hopes that she will understand why Francie feels so disconnected from life. While Marie offers no answers, she does give Francie a good perspective on life and the things that matter in the world.

She offers Francie a view that is different than what everyone else seems to think. When Francie returns home she begins to realize that everyone needs to find their own place in the world and their own way of finding happiness.

Source: Spindles End

Some Similar Quotes
  1. The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference. - Elie Wiesel

  2. Is it possible, in the final analysis, for one human being to achieve perfect understanding of another? We can invest enormous time and energy in serious efforts to know another person, but in the end, how close can we come to that person's essence? We... - Haruki Murakami

  3. The day the power of love overrules the love of power, the world will know peace. - Mahatma Gandhi

  4. He suddenly recalled from Plato's Symposium: People were hermaphrodites until God split then in two, and now all the halves wander the world over seeking one another. Love is the longing for the half of ourselves we have lost. - Milan Kundera

  5. It does not matter how long you are spending on the earth, how much money you have gathered or how much attention you have received. It is the amount of positive vibration you have radiated in life that matters, - Amit Ray

More Quotes By Robin McKinley
  1. I don't put up with being messed around, and I don't suffer fools gladly. The short version of that is that I'm a bitch. Trust me, I can provide character references.

  2. The train is roaring toward you and the villain is twirling his moustache and you're fussing that he's tied you to the tracks with the wrong kind of rope.

  3. Oh, why does compassion weaken us?' It doesn't, really .. Somewhere where it all balances out - don't the philosophers have a name for it, the perfect place, the place where the answers live? - if we could go there, you could see it doesn't....

  4. But I'm going to try to tell the truth. Except for the parts I'm leav­ing out, because there's still stuff I'm just not going to tell you. Get used to it.

  5. So, what do you do when you know you have two days to live? Eat an entire Bitter Chocolate Death cake all by myself. Reread my favorite novel. Buy eight dozen roses from the best florist in town--the super expensive ones, the ones that smell...

Related Topics