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Elizabeth Bowen

Elizabeth Bowen Quotes

Novelist

Elizabeth Bowen was an Irish-born British novelist known for her intricate psychological portrayals and profound insights into British society from the late Victorian era to the mid-20th century. Her works often focus on female characters, exploring themes of family, love, class, and identity.

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Famous Elizabeth Bowen Quotes

“But here I do see how everyone feels." "I wonder if I like that," said Eddie. "I suspect how people feel, and that seems to me bad enough—I wonder if the truth would be worse or better. The truth, of course I mean, about other people. I know only too well how I feel.”

Feelings Knowledge Awareness Emotions Dialogue Ignorance Is Bliss Other People Elizabeth Bowen The Death Of The Heart

Book:The Death Of The Heart

Source: The Death Of The Heart

“Dress has never been at all a straightforward business: so much subterranean interest and complex feeling attaches to it. As a topic ... it has a flowery head but deep roots in the passion. On the subject of dress almost no one, for one or another reason, feels truly indifferent: if their own clothes do not concern them, somebody else's do. ... Ten minutes talk about clothes (except between perfect friends) tends to make everyone present either overbearing, guarded or touchy.”

Ifs Feels Reason Feelings Passion Interest Perfect Minutes Subjects Ten Clothes Concern Roots Dresses Complexes Indifferent Topics Straightforward Guarded Touchy Overbearing Deep Roots

Author:Elizabeth Bowen

“Mr. [Aldous] Huxley has been the alarming young man for a long time, a sort of perpetual clever nephew who can be relied on to flutter the lunch party. Whatever will he say next? How does he think of those things? He has been deplored once or twice, but feeling is in his favor: he is steadily read. He is at once the truly clever person and the stupid person's idea of the clever person; he is expected to be relentless, to administer intellectual shocks.”

“Wariness had driven away poetry; from hesitating to feel came the moment when you no longer could.”

Feels Moments Feelings Driven

Book:The Heat of the Day

Source: The Heat of the Day

“Almost everybody wore a curious limpidity of expression, like newborn babies or souls just after death. Dazed but curiously dignified.... after a criseof hysterical revulsion and tiredness, I passed beyondand became entered by a rather sublime feeling.”

World War Soul Feelings Peace Expression Baby London Curious War Of The Worlds World War Ii World War I Sublime After Death Newborn Hysterical Tiredness Revulsion Newborn Baby Dazed

Author:Elizabeth Bowen

“Jealousy is no more than feeling alone against smiling enemies.”

“Illusions are art, for the feeling person, and it is by art that we live, if we do.”

Ifs Persons Art Feelings Spirituality Literature Illusion Artistic Mysticism

Book:The Death Of The Heart

Source: The Death Of The Heart

“The wish to lead out one's lover must be a tribal feeling; the wish to be seen as loved is part of one's self-respect.”

Self Feelings Wish Lovers Respect Self Respect

Book:The Death Of The Heart

Source: The Death Of The Heart

“It is not our exalted feelings, it is our sentiments that build the necessary home.”

Feelings Home Emotion Sentiments Exalted Emotions Feelings

Book:The Death Of The Heart

Source: The Death Of The Heart

“In big houses in which things are done properly, there is always the religious element. The diurnal cycle is observed with more feeling when there are servants to do the work.”

Done Feelings Bigs House Religious Wealth Elements Servant Cycles Big Houses

Book:The Death Of The Heart

Source: The Death Of The Heart

About the Author

Born: June 7, 1899
Died: February 22, 1973
Known for: Novelist
Quotes: 268

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Elizabeth Bowen The Death Of The Heart Writing People Literature Dialogue Novel Doe Character Knows Should Feels Firsts Ifs Seems Stories World Feelings Fiction May

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People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

The Death Of The HeartRelated source material

The House In ParisRelated source material

Collected ImpressionsRelated source material

Bowen's CourtRelated source material

Pictures and conversationsRelated source material

The Mulberry TreeRelated source material

A Time In RomeRelated source material

The Heat of the DayRelated source material

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The Last SeptemberRelated source material

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