cobwebbing

“When men of intense reality, as all great poets must be, give their hearts to be trodden on & tied up with ribbons in turn, by men of masks, there will be torture if here is not desecration.”
― Elizabeth Barrett Browning, The Love Letters of Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning

“Tell me something true, or tell me nothing at all.”
― Amal El-Mohtar, This Is How You Lose the Time War

“& if some natures have to be refined by the sun, & some by the furnace (the less genial ones--) both means are to be recognized as good; . . . however different in pleasurableness & painfulness, & tho' furnace-fire leaves scorched streaks upon the fruit--.”
― Elizabeth Barrett Browning, The Love Letters of Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning

“Forgive me. I am shy by nature:--& by position & experience, . . . by having had my nerves shaken to excess, & by leading a life of such seclusion, . . . by these things together & by others besides, I have appeared shy & ungrateful to you. Only not mistrustful. You could not mean to judge me so. Mistrustful people do not write as I write, . . . surely!”
― Elizabeth Barrett Browning, The Love Letters of Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning