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About this quote

What does it mean?
Things near breaking often possess a unique power or intensity.
In plain terms
Broken things have power, and things about to break have even more.
What can you take from it?
Weakness can hide strength.

Where it applies

  • personal crisis
  • artistic climax
  • conflict

Putting it to work

  • find strength in weakness
  • recognize tension

Questions to consider

  • Can brokenness be powerful?
  • Is danger a source of strength?

Another view

It romanticizes damage or instability.

More from Eugene McCarthy

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  2. I have left Act I, for involution And Act II. There, mired in complexity I cannot write Act III.

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  3. Now it is certain. There is no magic stone. No secret to be found. One must go With the mind's winnowed learning.

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