Robert Shafer > Quotes

“I used to think it ignoble to try and flee from oneself—like an act of defeat…. But I’m tired now, Cezal, and I see there’s no such thing as honor or dereliction. There is only emptiness.”
― Robert Shafer

“Sometimes I wish I could go back to when I was younger, when the future was filled with hope and possibility. I love it. I really love it so much. I often try to convince myself that I am back—that I’m in my youth and my family and friends are around me, and we’re all looking forward to the future.”
― Robert Shafer, The Golden Sun

“Worlds that have died and will never return still live on in my memories, and that truly is a marvel.”
― Robert Shafer

“People, my dear, are little children at heart. We all want to be loved and wanted and cherished. We want to know we matter to others, and they’re glad we’re here. That’s the best gift you can give someone. That’s all really we can ever give. To tell someone else you love them for everything they are and everything they’re not. Don’t underestimate that.”
― Robert Shafer, The Golden Sun

“If you look for love and beauty, you will find it. You will find it because in doing so, you will realize that it is something that has always existed in you. Those who look for happiness or love outside of themselves will always be dissatisfied. It is like decorating your house with paintings and expecting to become a skilled painter yourself. To make a beautiful painting, you must pain. Similarly, to fill your life with love, you must first love. You cannot rely upon other people and expect them to complete you. It is something one must cultivate in oneself.”
― Robert Shafer, The Golden Sun

“I’ve been able to cultivate in myself a vast interior world, with an ocean deep and blue, with calm waters and stormy waves; with the scorching sun at the surface and darkly salted, cold depths, far away from the sounds of the wold. I fill it at times with glaciers and at others with sunrises. I, too, have made a forest deep and filled with life. It is full of sounds that permeate the night, morning dew, and deep, foggy darkness.
And I’ve explored the forest a thousand times, and a thousand times they’ve explored me too. There lies the depth of my being—the depth of my story. It is beyond the emptiness of words. I’ve found depth in that which is shallow, and I’ve made it my home.”
― Robert Shafer, The Golden Sun

“The emptiness of life is, at times, deafening. I think the thought of my existence is a pain because I feel at some times that I do not understand it, and at other times, I don’t think there is anything to understand.”
― Robert Shafer