Quote by Aldous Huxley
One third, more or less, of all the sorrow that the person I think I am must endure is unavoidable. It is the sorrow inherent in the human condition, the price we must pay for being sentient and self-conscious organisms, aspirants to liberation, but subject to the laws of nature and under orders to keep on marching, through irreversible time, through a world wholly indifferent to our well-being, toward decrepitude and the certainty of death. The remaining two thirds of all sorrow is homemade and, so far as the universe is concerned, unnecessary.
Summary
This quote by American journalist and author Thomas L. Friedman explores the concept of sorrow in relation to the human experience. It suggests that approximately one-third of the sorrow we endure is inevitable, as it is inherent in the human condition, exemplified by mortality and the passing of time. The remaining two-thirds of sorrow, according to the quote, are self-inflicted and unnecessary in the larger context of the universe. It implies that we have some degree of agency in reducing the self-created sorrow in our lives.