The Bell Jar
by
My trouble was I took everything Buddy Willard told me as the honest-to-God truth.
“Edward:
But I'm obsessed by the thought of my own significance.
Rielly:
Precisely. And I could make you feel important,
And you would imagine it a marvelous cure; And you would go on, doing such amount of mischief
As lay within your power -- until you came to grief.
Half of the harm that is done in this world
Is due to people who want to feel important.
They don't mean to do harm--but the harm does not interest them
Or they do not see it, or they justify it
Because they are absorbed in the endless struggle
To think well of themselves.”
― The Cocktail Party
But I'm obsessed by the thought of my own significance.
Rielly:
Precisely. And I could make you feel important,
And you would imagine it a marvelous cure; And you would go on, doing such amount of mischief
As lay within your power -- until you came to grief.
Half of the harm that is done in this world
Is due to people who want to feel important.
They don't mean to do harm--but the harm does not interest them
Or they do not see it, or they justify it
Because they are absorbed in the endless struggle
To think well of themselves.”
― The Cocktail Party
“Not anyone who says "I'm going to be
careful and smart in the matters of love,"
who says, "I'm going to choose slowly,"
but only those lovers who didn't choose at all
but were, as it were, chosen
by something invisible
and powerful and uncontrollable
and beautiful and possibly even
unsuitable--
only those know what I'm talking about
in this talking about love.”
― Felicity: Poems
careful and smart in the matters of love,"
who says, "I'm going to choose slowly,"
but only those lovers who didn't choose at all
but were, as it were, chosen
by something invisible
and powerful and uncontrollable
and beautiful and possibly even
unsuitable--
only those know what I'm talking about
in this talking about love.”
― Felicity: Poems
“If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happened better than all the riches or power in the world. It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb. (Don't Hesitate)”
― Swan: Poems and Prose Poems
― Swan: Poems and Prose Poems
“Homesickness is absolutely nothing. Fifty percent of the people in the world are homesick all the time. You don't really long for another country. You long for something in yourself that you don't have, or haven't been able to find.”
― The Brigadier and the Golf Widow
― The Brigadier and the Golf Widow
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