“Life is like an onion; you peel it off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep.”

Variant: Life is an onion - you peel it year by year and sometimes cry.
Source: Remembrance Rock

Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Do you have more details about the quote "Life is like an onion; you peel it off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep." by Carl Sandburg?

Carl Sandburg62

American writer and editor 1878–1967

Arthur Golden book Memoirs of a Geisha

Source: Memoirs of a Geisha

“He says I'm a regular onion! I keep him busy peeling away the layers.”

Ray Bradbury book Fahrenheit 451

Source: Fahrenheit 451

“If you have ever peeled an onion, then you know that the first thin, papery layer reveals another thin, papery layer, and that layer reveals another, and another, and before you know it you have hundreds of layers all over the kitchen table and thousands of tears in your eyes, sorry that you ever started peeling in the first place and wishing that you had left the onion alone to wither away on the shelf of the pantry while you went on with your life, even if that meant never again enjoying the complicated and overwhelming taste of this strange and bitter vegetable.

In this way, the story of the Baudelaire orphans is like an onion, and if you insist on reading each and every thin, papery layer in A Series of Unfortunate Events, your only reward will be 170 chapters of misery in your library and countless tears in your eyes. Even if you have read the first twelve volumes of the Baudelaires' story, it is not too late to stop peeling away the layers, and to put this book back on the shelf to wither away while you read something less complicated and overwhelming. The end of this unhappy chronicle is like its bad beginning, as each misfortune only reveals another, and another, and another, and only those with the stomach for this strange and bitter tale should venture any farther into the Baudelaire onion. I'm sorry to tell you this, but that is how the story goes.”

Daniel Handler book The End

Source: The End (2006), Chapter 1

“For me these things are like an onion, as you discover more layers, you cry even more. There are no winners in wars, only blood and losers.”

Guillermo del Toro (1964) Mexican film director

Para mí estas cosas son como una cebolla, entre más capas descubres, más vas llorando. No hay vencedores en las guerras, sólo sangre y vencidos. <br class="br">Interview with Guillermo del Toro on 10/09/2006. http://www.elmundo.es/encuentros/invitados/2006/10/2192/

“I infused the characters of Jof and Mia with something that was very important to me: the concept of the holiness of the human being. If you peel off the layers of various theologies, the holy always remains.”

Ingmar Bergman (1918–2007) Swedish filmmaker

Images : My Life in Films (1990)
Context: Since at this time I was still very much in a quandary over religious faith, I placed my two opposing beliefs side by side, allowing each to state its case in its own way. In this manner, a virtual cease-fire could exist between my childhood piety and my newfound harsh rationalism. Thus, there are no neurotic complications between the knight and his vassals. Also, I infused the characters of Jof and Mia with something that was very important to me: the concept of the holiness of the human being. If you peel off the layers of various theologies, the holy always remains.