Amy Hempel Quotes

It was difficult for me because I was searching for the answer for so long, and the answer was right in front of me. Do what I do best.

It's funny, as you live through something you're not aware of it.

One often makes a remark and only later sees how true it is.

Occasionally there is a moment in a person's life when he takes a great stride forward in wisdom, humility, or disillusionment. For a split second he comes into a kind of cosmic understanding. For a trembling breath of time he knows all there is to know. He is loaned the gift the poet yearned for - seeing himself as others see him.

How many things have to happen to you before something occurs to you?

The disadvantage of becoming wise is that you realize how foolish you've been.

He felt like a man who, after straining his eyes to peer into the remote distance, finds what he was seeking at his very feet. All his life he had been looking over the heads of those around him, while he had only to look before him without straining his eyes. p 1320

I think I am seeing more clearly now than ever.

The turning point really is just knowing you're an imbecile.

Pain is the root of knowledge.

Losing an illusion makes you wiser than finding a truth.

I discovered myself!

Graduation speeches force you to reflect. They are about consciousness. Nothing is better than consciousness.

I don't really take a step back too often to see what's going on.

Learning is finding out what you already know.

The hardest thing to see is what is in front of your eyes.

I think I surprise myself.

Have you ever had that moment when you looked back on something and said, 'Well, gosh, that seems obvious now... why didn't I see it then?' I like to call this the Face Palm Epiphany. Oh, hindsight, you magical, humbling thing.

The animal is ignorant of the fact that he knows. The man is aware of the fact that he is ignorant.

Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens.

I'm the kind of person where I always digest everything around me.

Sometimes one misses the sign posts as you're going down the road. They aren't as obvious as they become when you get to the end of the road, so to speak.

Sometimes it takes a sudden change to make you realise just how bad things were.

Sometimes you watch yourself, and you think, 'Oh, wow.'

Sometimes, hindsight is 20/20. Sometimes it takes another situation to kind of make you look back at a different situation and really see how good you had it, you know?