Jeanne

“Taking cruelty for strength is the most common mistake of youth. Youth only knows life by the intensity of its own feelings—a continuous explosive fortissimo with a foot on the pedal. Youth knows nothing of that supreme sensitivity, the true sensitivity of the strong that denies cruelty; youth has no inkling of the force with which a barely audible pianissimo can strike under your heart.”
― Oksana Zabuzhko, The Museum of Abandoned Secrets

“To consider our greatest anguish an incident of no importance, not just in terms of the life of the universe, but in terms of our own souls, is the beginning of knowledge.”
― Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet: The Complete Edition

“I can’t be certain that Frank and I would have felt the same depth of love and tenderness for each other, had sex ever been part of our story. Sex is so often a cheat, a short cut of intimacy, a way to skip over knowing somebody’s heart by knowing instead their mere body. So we were devoted to each other in our own way.”
― Elizabeth Gilbert, City of Girls

“There are dreamed anguishes that are more real
Than the ones life brings us, there are sensations
Felt only by imagining
Which are more ours than our own life is.
There’s so often a thing which, not existing,
Does exist, exists lingeringly
And lingeringly is ours and us…”
― Fernando Pessoa, Selected Poems