Moriah’s Reviews > The Early Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 2: 1920-1923 > Status Update

“I talked about the love of art. ‘It seems to make you stand apart, does it not?’ I asked. ‘Yes, and yet, strangely enough, in our love of art we are trying to draw nearer to life.’”

“I fear my trust in friendship will not pass its severest test. Oh, the sadness of uncertainty—and about people I seem to know so little, so terribly little. When will I be able to discern, to judge, to place my trust in trustworthy hands. I am always giving myself away in some strange way. People know all that is in my heart; they read my face, my eyes. I can hold no secret like and dislikes.”

“Thoughts cannot be controlled like actions, and there are moments when mine turn naturally and inevitably to the persons I long to have near me.”

“Rain wakes many memories, many smoldering sentiments, many strange thoughts.”

“There is poetry in every human being but it lies hidden sometimes because the person is ashamed of it and believes it to be a weakness.”

“Perhaps it is mere illusion I have about my love—that is it comes to me, it should be vastly different from all loves, great and strange, undescribably pure, magnificent, indestructible. It should be blended also with my treasured Books and my worship of Nature. Can anything be greater than such a perfect union—of things that endure forever and of which no one could ever tire?”

“I do not believe in hell at all, however, and still less in hell on this earth of ours. I do believe in something vastly different; that we expiate our faults on earth, by sacrifice and suffering; that we atone for our great weakness every day.”

“Beware, poor boy, the queer thoughts of a queer girl are bottomless but very elastic, and they have a way of springing unexpectedly upon some people.”

“Do you understand why the very word Book is sacred to me? It is always a long, complete voyage followed by the discovery of some new world. Each time, if a book is good, all my mind responds to it. I think, I feel, I laugh and cry with it. They are nearly always, fine old books, those books I read. Have they not made me the old-fashioned girl I am?”

“The happiest moment of the day was, nevertheless, during that short walk between the station and home, when I felt ecstatic because there were stars twinkling above me, because the field smelled in the way of fields in winter, because it was so still, so cold, so friendly and soothing; because I was alone.”