Add Quote by Sheila Heti

“To add something to the world should be the question, not not adding something to the world.”

Sheila Heti

About This Quote

Source Essay: “On Creation”, 2015

The focus should be on contributing meaningfully, not merely avoiding contribution.

In simple terms: Create rather than avoid

Key Takeaway

Prioritize meaningful contribution

Themes

creation purpose ethics

Mood

reflective inspirational

Type

essay philosophical

When to use this quote

artistic projects
community service
innovation

Key Concepts

Existentialism social responsibility

Questions to Reflect On

What would you add to the world today?
How do you measure the value of your contributions?

A Different Perspective

Fear of failure can hinder creation.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 2.1 out of 5 (4 ratings)

More by Sheila Heti

I believe there's a platonic ideal for every book that is written, like there's the perfect version of the book somewhere in the ether,…

Sheila Heti

Image

I really enjoyed the process of 'Women in Clothes,' but there's no way I would have done that again. It felt more like being…

Sheila Heti

Image

“style is about knowing what you like and why you like it, more than anything else. GRACE”

Sheila Heti

Image

I'd rather that people could be both entertained and given rest while reading my book than for someone to have to put the book…

Sheila Heti

Image

“I know that character exists from the outside alone. I know that inside the body there's just temperature.”

Sheila Heti

Image

I don't think about the reader when I'm writing, but I do when I'm editing, of course. For instance, I self-consciously didn't want to…

Sheila Heti

Image

He’s just another man who wants to teach me something.

Sheila Heti

Image

“She had thought that when someone died, it would be like they went into a different room. She had not known that life itself…

Sheila Heti

Image

It's so weird how our existence hinges on just absolute crazy chance, but it feels so essential. It's like, 'Nothing would be here if…

Sheila Heti

Image

In 'Sweet Days of Discipline,' the narrator, years after graduating, fortuitously encounters her old friend Frederique at a movie theatre. Frederique invites her home.

Sheila Heti

Image

Every choice you make has higher stakes - or that's how it feels.

Sheila Heti

Image

Women without children can help mothers, and we can just be all in this together.

Sheila Heti

Image

Explore all 150 Sheila Heti quotes

More Add quotes

Most marriages don't add two people together. They subtract one from the other.

Ian Fleming

Image

Friendship, "the wine of life," should, like a well-stocked cellar, be continually renewed; and it is consolatory to think, that although we can seldom…

James Boswell

Image

Life as we know it is fundamentally unsatisfying. I think most folks feel this to be true. They know that a life of aimless…

Michael Yates

Image

Give me a platter of choice finnan haddie, freshly cooked in its bath of water and milk, add melted butter, a slice or two…

Craig Claiborne

Image

Writing adds up to the conscience of our times.

Martin Firrell

Image

A 'modern' man has nothing to add to modernism, if only because he has nothing to oppose it with. The well-adapted drop off the…

Elias Canetti

Image

Observation and theory get on best when they are mixed together, both helping one another in the pursuit of truth. It is a good…

Arthur Eddington

Image

I may add that we have more than once stated our willingness to conclude nonaggression pacts with the states neighboring our own!

Adolf Hitler

Image

The American Constitution declares 'All men are born equal.' The British Socialist Party add: 'All men must be kept equal'.

Winston Churchill

Image

New generations of humans inherit the acquired discoveries of generations past, allowing cosmic insight to accumulate without limit. Each discovery of science therefore adds…

Neil deGrasse Tyson