...by the time we understand the pattern we are in, the definition we are making for ourselves, it's too late to break out of the box. We can only live in terms of the definition, like the prisoner in the cage in which he cannot lie or stand or sit, hung up in justice to be viewed by the populace. Yet the definition we have made of ourselves is ourselves. To break out of it, we must make a new self. But how can the self make a new self when the selfness which it is, is the only substance from which the new self can be made?
About This Quote
About Robert Penn Warren
Robert Penn Warren was a 20th-century American poet, novelist, and literary critic. Robert Penn Warren was an American poet, novelist, literary critic and professor at Yale University. He was one of the founders of New Criticism. Read more on Wikipedia →
Themes
- Change — Embracing transformation, growth, and new beginnings