Each of us is a biography, a story… Biologically, physiologically, we are not so different from each other; historically, as narratives, we are each of us unique.
-Oliver Sacks
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat
Category: “We are each of us unique.”
“We are each of us unique.” #2
To have one’s individual completely ignored is like being pushed quite out of life. Like being blown out as one blows out a light.
-Evelyn Scott
Has anyone ever caused you to feel as if you weren’t even there, as if your needs or wishes or plans didn’t even exist? How can each of us make sure we don’t treat another person like that?
“We are each of us unique.” #3
The human animal needs a freedom seldom mentioned: freedom, from intrusion. He needs a little privacy quite as much as he wants understanding or vitamins or exercise or praise.
-Phyllis McGinley
Each of us needs a different amount of this freedom. This difference often causes misunderstandings between friends, spouses, parents and children, and even teachers and students. What experience have you had with “freedom from intrusion”? How can people come to better understand and respect each other;s need for privacy?
“We are each of us unique.” #4
If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man’s life, sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostilities.
-Henry Wadsowrth Longfellow
“We are each of us unique.” #5
Our language has wisely sensed the two sides of being alone. It has created the word “loneliness” to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word “solitude” to express the glory of being alone.
-Paul Tillich
The Eternal Now
…Nothing, nothing, nothing, is worthwhile when we have to do it all alone.
-Kathleen Norris
Hands Full of Living
“We are each of us unique.” #6
There are no precedents: You are the first you that ever was.
-Christopher Morley
Inward Ho
We are each so much more than what some reduce to measuring.
-Karen Kaiser Clark
Once you label me, you negate me.
-Soren Kierkegard
“We are each of us unique.” #7
People don’t want to be understood-I mean not completely. It’s too destructive. Then they haven’t anyting left.
-Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Bring Me a Unicorn
No human being can really understand another and no one can arrange another’s happiness.
-Graham Greene
Some people believe they can “read you like a book.” They also think they know what’s best for another and think nothing of making decisions or plans for that person. Do you know anyone like this? Write a vignette or skit illustrating the person’s behavior. Why do you suppose he or she assumes the right to run another person’s life?
“We are each of us unique.” #8
Most often it happens that one attributes to others only the feeling of which one is capable oneself.
-Andree Gide
It would probably astound each of us beyond measure to be let into his neighbor’s mind and to find out how different the scenery there was from that of his own.
-William James
Many of us persist in the belief that people are pretty much the same, that we share similar values, viewpoints, goals, and emotional needs and attachments. This belief results in many surprises-usually disapointments. What kinds of situations can this belief create? How can a person find out what another’s feelings and values are?