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About this quote

What does it mean?
The speaker credits misunderstanding for allowing them to remain themselves.
In plain terms
Misunderstanding helps me stay myself.
What can you take from it?
Not being understood preserves your identity.

Where it applies

  • social pressure
  • miscommunication
  • self-preservation

Putting it to work

  • setting boundaries
  • accepting isolation
  • ignoring critics

Questions to consider

  • Do you feel misunderstood?
  • Does understanding change who you are?

Another view

It assumes identity requires separation from others.

More from Samuel Beckett

  1. All this business of a labour to accomplish, before I can end, of words to say, a truth to recover, in order to say it, before I can end, of an imposed task, o…

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  2. At no moment do I know what I'm talking about, nor of whom, nor of where, nor how, nor why, but I could employ fifty wretches for this sinister operation and s…

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  3. I, of whom I know nothing, I know my eyes are open, because of the tears that pour from them unceasingly.

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