3 Sentences That Make You Think
A few sentences won’t change your life, but maybe they move something inside you when you hear them, in your mind and heart, like an honest and direct ending. Some sentences describe exactly what is happening to us, and they seem more than just an invitation to reflect, but an invitation to change.
We may not be used to reading big thoughts in a philosophy book or watching a movie that challenges all of our dogmas and prejudices, but the majority of us will certainly remember a few sentences that influenced and made us think. Perhaps one of the following three sentences will have such an effect on you.
“Everyone has a plan until they get the first slap in the face”
This first sentence is not from a philosopher, and we believe that the boxer who said it never thought of being one, but sometimes what is said directly is also the more honest, and has a deeper message. Simple, simple and direct.
This sentence was said by boxer Mike Tyson and contains a very powerful message that can be carried over from boxing to life. We all have a plan for our life, we believe that we can follow it without any problem and that the wind will always blow in our favor. This continues until the first difficulty occurs and with it the fears and doubts.
You can work on something with full conviction, but suddenly life can deal you a bad blow: the diagnosis of an illness, aggressive behavior, or betrayal on the part of a person who is very important to you. Your original path is then still there and marked out, but you will no longer be the same.
“Has what you done made your life better?”
The unforgettable but difficult to digest film American History X tells with all cruelty about the effect of the Nazi ideology on North American youth. Coexistence between blacks and whites is starting to get difficult and tense due to the racist ideas of leader Cameron Alexander (Stacy Keach) and his influence on the thinking of some boys, especially that of the movie’s protagonist, Derek Vinyard (Edward Norton) .
Derek is an intelligent and empathetic boy who is starting to hear racist ideas from his father and who also takes care of him. On the other hand, his friendship with Cameron, the leader of a neo-Nazi group in the area, ensures that he is further radicalized, in front of the eyes of the director of his school, the Afro-American Bob Sweeney (Avery Brooks), who cannot do anything about it.
Eventually Derek kills two African Americans on their own doorstep, in front of their entire family. He goes to jail and there all prejudices against black people are broken down, especially through the friendship that develops with one of them.
One day Derek is raped in the shower by a group of neo-Nazis because they distrust his behavior and his friendship with a black man. They attack him to humiliate him and because they consider him a traitor. While in the hospital, his friend and school principal visit him and ask him the following question: “Has what you done made your life better?” Derek is struck by a blow because he becomes aware of all that he has done for this idea and that he has destroyed everything valuable in his life for it.
Once we have fallen into a very dark hole and don’t know what we did to get there, then this is the question we should ask ourselves. In this way we will sincerely acknowledge all of the toxic patterns that have brought us here. This does not rule out the fact that we did not also have to master difficult situations and little luck on our way. However, we always have a responsibility, be it large or small.
These types of questions can be used as a form of emotional catharsis to help us transform.
“You can’t find peace by avoiding life”
We are currently in a world in which one tries to avoid any form of malaise at all costs. The traditional religions have less and less influence in the western world, and many of them are not even able to bring calm into the current life of the people. The world has been left with no alternative points of contact to endure the pain. We feel ashamed and live through it in seclusion, take medication and are more and more alone.
Virginia Woolf has said the third of our sentences and some branches of psychology seem to agree with her. Evasion so as not to suffer, coupled with excessive stress, is one of the worst parts of our time: We avoid things because of the guilt we feel for not feeling able to mimic certain models of success and well-being .
These words, along with the many other sentences that Virginia Woolf left us, encourage us to face life and situations that we do not like. We are social beings and we have to be. If you keep avoiding things, you end up finding only pain and isolation, never peace. Solitude is wonderful when you choose it consciously, but not when it is imposed out of fear of the world itself.
