This is a fairly short question on Yahoo Answers on this fine day in history. It needs an answer! Help?

Question

How would you explain/analyze this quote: I think it's a mistake to ever look for hope outside of one's self."

Thanks,
the Gibbler

Answer 1

Externalities are ultimately frustrative & unsatisfying.

The ultimate questions always end in silence & the peace of the quiet mind itself.

Anything added is just sounds.

;-)

Answer 2

It might help to know that the line comes from the Arthur Miller play After the Fall:

I think it's a mistake to ever look for hope outside of one's self. One day the house smells of fresh bread, the next of smoke and blood. One day you faint because the gardener cuts his finger off, within a week you're climbing over corpses of children bombed in a subway. What hope can there be if that is so? I tried to die near the end of the war. The same dream returned each night until I dared not to go to sleep and grew quite ill. I dreamed I had a child, and even in the dream I saw it was my life, and it was an idiot, and I ran away. But it always crept onto my lap again, clutched at my clothes. Until I thought, if I could kiss it, whatever in it was my own, perhaps I could sleep. And I bent to its broken face, and it was horrible...but I kissed it. I think one must finally take one's life in one's arms.

The play was written after Miller's marriage to Marilyn Monroe fell apart and some critics believe the play was autobiographical. Guilt and betrayal were major themes of the play. After the fall refers to man's fall from grace and there is a line in the play about expulsion from the garden of Eden.

Here is a brief summary of the play from http://www.ibiblio.org/miller/works.html:
After the Fall (1964) Often viewed as highly autobiographical, this play received much criticism from reviewers who thought he was tarnishing the memory of American icon Marilyn Monroe, who had recently committed suicide. After the Fall examines the parallels between private and public acts of betrayal by drawing connections between the central character's self-assessment and the atrocities committed during the Holocaust. In an extended confession, Quentin relates the story of his life, describing what he sees as his formative relationships with women, most notably his mother, and his first two wives, Louise and Maggie. We also learn of his experiences living through the Depression, HUAC, and of his eventual acceptance of the possibility of future happiness with his new wife, Holga.

Find a study guide for the play here: http://www.ibiblio.org/miller/afterguide.html

Fairly long answer for a fairly short question. :>)

Answer 3

Who ever said that quote obviously did not have a good outlook on life. How I interpret it is that the person who said this would rather relie on his or her self and trust his or her self rather than having faith that other people can have hope too. Maybe they are afraid of being let down. Hope this helps.

Answer 4

For me, it will define a simple outlook on life: People look at things that go on around and outside them and are happy or sad accordingly. The best way to be happy is to look within you and u will always find real happiness there, no matter what's going on outside you. You don't really need any outside sources to look for hope...look for it within u and u'll always find something that'll help u move on :-)

Answer 5

I think that person was expressing his/her disappointment and frustration after having trusted others and suffered misfortune by it. OK, now what is a gibbler?

Answer 6

Instead of looking for hope from someone else, finding hope inside of oneself is the best place for it to come from.

Answer 7

ummm... if u can't help Ur self...no one cans
there may be people who want to help u... but if u don't do anything....they have no power
for everything u do u must look inside u and see if u really want to do that

Answer 8

I think it is a good one as one should only hope and have faith in oneself and nothing else.

Answer 9

To me, it means rely upon yourself. Don't look to others to control your destiny.

Answer 10

Go on your own way-always rely on no. 1 (Yourself)