# Quote — Erica Jong, How to Save Your Own Life

> The future is merely a shadow which blocks out the joys of the present and emphasizes the miseries of the past.

- Author: [Erica Jong](https://www.leafyquotes.com/erica-jong.md)
- Book: [How to Save Your Own Life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/erica-jong/how-to-save-your-own-life.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Erica_Jong#How_to_Save_Your_Own_Life_(1977)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Topics: [the future](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-future.md)
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/erica-jong/how-to-save-your-own-life/the-future-is-merely

## More from this book

> Friends love misery... our misery is what endears us to our friends.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/erica-jong/how-to-save-your-own-life/friends-love-misery.md)

> It takes a spasm of love to write a poem.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/erica-jong/how-to-save-your-own-life/it-takes-a-spasm.md)

Topics: [writing](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/writing.md), [poetry](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/poetry.md)

> Loving someone is a loss of freedom -- but one doesn't think of it as loss because one gains so much else.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/erica-jong/how-to-save-your-own-life/loving-someone-is-a-loss.md)

Topics: [freedom](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/freedom.md), [love](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love.md)