“The lessons of life amount not to wisdom, but to scar tissue and callus.”
Variant: Most things break, including hearts. The lessons of life amount not to
wisdom, but to scar tissue and callus.
Source: The Spectator Bird
“Civilization is a scar tissue from a past of violence and destruction.”
Source: Social Amnesia: A Critique of Conformist Psychology from Adler to Laing (1975), p. 31
“My back is so scar-tissued that you couldn't find a place to slip a knife.”
Source: A Dictionary of New Zealand Political Quotations (2000), p. 96.
Source: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (1987)
Context: If the Universe came to an end every time there was some uncertainty about what had happened in it, it would never have got beyond the first picosecond. And many of course don’t. It’s like a human body, you see. A few cuts and bruises here and there don’t hurt it. Not even major surgery if it’s done properly. Paradoxes are just the scar tissue. Time and space heal themselves up around them and people simply remember a version of events which makes as much sense as they require it to make.
Variant: It has been said, 'time heals all wounds.' I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessens. But it is never gone.
Source: This Is How: Proven Aid in Overcoming Shyness, Molestation, Fatness, Spinsterhood, Grief, Disease, Lushery, Decrepitude & More. For Young and Old Alike.
The Aquarian Conspiracy (1980), Chapter Three, Brains Changing, Minds Changing
