If we're all living in ourselves and mistaking it for life, then we're devaluing and desensitizing life.

Newton’s line warns against a kind of solipsism—retreating into the self (one’s private anxieties, curated identity, or self-absorption) and confusing that inward loop for “life” itself. If lived experience is reduced to self-referential consumption—of attention, validation, or personal narrative—then the world outside the self (other people’s realities, vulnerability, consequence) becomes less vivid. “Devaluing” suggests life is treated as cheaper or more disposable; “desensitizing” suggests repeated inwardness dulls empathy and moral perception. The quote argues for re-engagement with the shared, external, and relational dimensions of living as an antidote to numbness.