5 Quotes From Robin Williams

Although everything seemed to be going well for Robin Williams, on August 11, 2014, he was found hanged in his home. This fact left all his followers surprised, until his last wife, Susan Schneider, said that he suffered from Parkinson’s disease and that the diagnosis affected him so much that, perhaps, it was one of the motivations that led him to take his life. Next, we will see some of the phrases that he left us.

1. Being alone … even surrounded by people

In the first of Robin Williams’ sentences, a certain sadness is recognized, but at the same time he leaves us with a great truth. Who has not ever felt alone being surrounded by people? Having this feeling can often indicate that we have a great inner emptiness or that we are not with the right people.

Many people with low self-esteem feel this way and this can lead to isolation as a way to protect themselves. Well, although loneliness can be terrible, it is much worse to be surrounded by people with whom you cannot connect. Perhaps, in these circumstances, it would be positive to ask ourselves if we have surrounded ourselves with people who contribute to us or who motivate us to contribute.

2. Learn from mistakes

The second of Robin Williams’ phrases urges us to get out of our comfort zone. Well, although we can be very comfortable in it, the big things, what can most stimulate us to grow, are outside of it. Within that area we take on challenges, but these hardly put our capacity to the test.

Mistakes help us to be better, to know where to go and to improve certain aspects of our lives. Imagine that we were never wrong: we would hardly advance, being trapped in an overwhelming stagnation.

3. Live intensely

Many people consider that living intensely or living as if it were the last day of their life inevitably means adding a list of crazy things. However, this association is not true. To live this way we don’t need to take a trip or something out of the ordinary. We just have to pay attention to the little things.

It can be lived intensely if we begin to appreciate the time we dedicate to our loved ones, taking care of each moment and savoring it to the fullest. We can also live this way if we value money, the bed we sleep in or that delicious food we have on our plate. Being grateful and enjoying what we take for granted will help us experience life with intensity.

4. We are our own teachers

The fourth of Robin Williams’ sentences allows us to reflect on the idea that we are our own teachers. Because with our mistakes and the decisions we make we learn a series of lessons that no one else could pass on to us.

Although we acquire in school a multitude of information and skills that are necessary, it is the “manipulation” of knowledge that ends up teaching us the most. As Robin Williams says, this is much better than all the magic or treasures in the world. Because we have something very valuable that we rarely recognize: ourselves.

5. Having too much and not knowing how to manage it

This last of Robin Williams’ phrases tells us about one of the times when alcohol and drugs were very present in his life. This phrase has a lot of irony, something that characterized the actor who used to joke with all kinds of topics.

It is sad, but very often  people with many resources  end up trying drugs, something that shakes their lives violently. On many of these occasions, it is the feeling of not knowing what to spend in order to feel more that leads them to fall into the hole.

All these phrases by Robin Williams allow us to get closer to this actor who, at age 63, decided to kill himself. Some make us think that some kind of emptiness could exist inside it. Others allow us to get closer to some harmful experiences that could have marked it. But, many of them urge us to experience and appreciate life in a way that brings us closer to what we believe to be happiness, although we should say better, to balance and well-being.