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About this quote

What does it mean?
I feel lost and afraid facing challenges from both people and fate.
In plain terms
I feel scared and alone in a world I did not choose.
What can you take from it?
It is natural to feel fear and alienation in life.

Where it applies

  • feeling out of place
  • facing uncertainty
  • existential crisis

Putting it to work

  • comforting anxiety
  • expressing fear
  • seeking connection

Questions to consider

  • Do you feel you have no control over your world?
  • How do you face fear?

Another view

It presents the self as entirely passive against external forces.

More from A. E. Housman

  1. The laws of God, the laws of man, He may keep that will and can; Now I: let God and man decree Laws for themselves and not for me.

    Permalink to quote #36
  2. He stood, and heard the steeple Sprinkle the quarters on the morning town. One, two, three, four, to market-place and people It tossed them down. Strapped, noo…

    Permalink to quote #38
  3. But men at whiles are sober And think by fits and starts, And if they think, they fasten Their hands upon their hearts.

    Permalink to quote #35

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