Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
The speaker has become numb to loss because everything in life feels transient and temporary.
In plain terms
Loss hurts less now because nothing feels permanent anymore.
What can you take from it?
Accepting impermanence can reduce the pain of individual losses.

Where it applies

  • dealing with breakups
  • processing grief
  • reflecting on change

Putting it to work

  • journaling about change
  • practicing mindfulness
  • acknowledging loss

Questions to consider

  • How has your relationship with loss changed over time?
  • Is accepting loss forever a form of resilience or defeat?

Another view

Numbness to loss may also prevent healthy emotional processing.

More from Jack Kerouac

  1. There's your Karma ripe as peaches.

    Permalink to quote #46
  2. I'm writing this book because we're all going to die - In the loneliness of my life, my father dead, my brother dead, my mother far away, my sister and my wife…

    Permalink to quote #48
  3. Everything is going to the beat - It's the beat generation, it be-at, it's the beat to keep, it's the beat of the heart, it's being beat and down in the world …

    Permalink to quote #45

Related quotes

  1. Weep not that the world changes-did it keep A stable, changeless state, 'twere cause indeed to weep.

    William Cullen BryantWilliam Cullen Bryant quote #11
  2. I know that it will hurt I know that it will break your heart the way things are and the way they've been and the way they've always been

    Natalie MerchantNatalie Merchant quote #34
  3. What is this world of ours? A complex entity subject to sudden changes which all indicate a tendency to destruction; a swift succession of beings which follow …

    Denis DiderotDenis Diderot quote #3