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Kate Chopin

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Famous Kate Chopin Quotes

“In short, Mrs. Pontellier was beginning to realize her position in the universe as a human being, and to recongize her relations as an individual to the world within and about her. This may seem like a ponderous weight of wisdom to descend upon the soul of a young woman of twenty-eight - perhaps more wisdom than the Holy Ghost is usually pleased to vouchsafe to any woman.”

WorldHumansMaySoulSeemsYoungUniverseIndividualRealizingHuman BeingsPositionHolyWeightRelationTwentiesEightGhostYoung WomenHoly Ghost
Book:The Awakening
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“…there would be no powerful will binding hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow creature…And yet she had loved him- sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter! What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in the face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being.”

MenBelieveSelfSometimesMatterWould BeFacesPowerfulMysteryCreaturesMen And WomenFellowsBlindPossessionImpulsePersistenceStrongestAssertionBindingUnsolved Mysteries
Author:Kate Chopin
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“She was still under the spell of her infatuation. She had tried to forget him, realizing the inutility of remembering. But the thought of him was like an obsession, ever pressing itself upon her. It was not that she dwelt upon details of their acquaintance, or recalled in any special or peculiar way his personality; it was his being, his existence, which dominated her thought, fading sometimes as if it would melt into the mist of the forgotten, reviving again with an intensity which filled her with an incomprehensible longing.”

IfsWayStillsSometimesRememberRealizingForgetExistenceSpecialPersonalityFilledLongingForgottenDetailsObsessionSpellsIntensityPeculiarInfatuationAcquaintanceMistFadingForget Him
Book:Awakening EasyRead Edition
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“I'm tired," she uttered complainingly. "I know you are." "You don't know anything about it. Why should you know? I never was so exhausted in my life. But it isn't unpleasant. A thousand emotions have swept through me to-night. I don't comprehend half on them. Don't mind what I'm saying; I am just thinking aloud.”

ThinkingKnowsShouldMindNightEmotionHalfThousandTiredExhaustedI'm Tired
Book:The Awakening: And Selected Short Stories - Beyond the Bayou, Ma'ame Pelagie, Desiree's Baby, Respectable Woman, Kiss, Pair of Silk Stockings, Locket, Reflection (Beloved Books Edition)
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“Why?" asked her companion. "Why do you love him when you ought not to?" Edna, with a motion or two, dragged herself on her knees before Mademoiselle Reisz, who took the glowing face between her two hands. "Why? Because his hair is brown and grows away from his temples; because he opens and shuts his eyes, and his nose is a little out of drawing; because he has two lips and a square chin, and a little finger which he can't straighten from having played baseball too energetically in his youth. Because - " "Because you do, in short," laughed Mademoiselle.”

LittlesTwoHandsEyeFacesGrowsYouthHairOughtBaseballFingersLipsDrawingNosesKneesHis EyesBrownTemplesCompanionSquaresLaughedGlowingChinsTwo Hands
Book:THE AWAKENING - A Solitary Soul (Feminist Classics Series): One Women's Story from the Turn-Of-The-Century American South
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“Does he write to you? Never a line. Does he send you a message? Never a word. It is because he loves you, poor fool, and is trying to forget you, since you are not free to listen to him or to belong to him.”

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Book:THE AWAKENING - A Solitary Soul (Feminist Classics Series): One Women's Story from the Turn-Of-The-Century American South
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“I wonder if anyone else has an ear so tuned and sharpened as I have, to detect the music, not of the spheres, but of earth, subtleties of major and minor chord that the wind strikes upon the tree branches. Have you ever heard the earth breathe?”

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Book:The Storm And Other Stories with THE AWAKENING
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“The mother-women seemed to prevail that summer at Grand Isle. It was easy to know them, fluttering about with extended, protecting wings when any harm, real or imaginary, threatened their precious brood. They were women who idolized their children, worshiped their husbands, and esteemed it a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals and grow wings as ministering angels.”

KnowsChildrenRealMotherIndividualGrowsEasyHolyHusbandSummerAngelWingsPrivilegeHarmAwakeningImaginaryThreatenedIsleFlutteringIdolized
Book:The Awakening
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“She felt like a chess player who, by the clever handling of his pieces, sees the game taking the course intended. Her eyes were bright and tender with a smile as they glanced up into his; and her lips looked hungry for the kiss which they invited.”

EyeCoursesLiteratureGamesFeltPiecesPlayerKissingSmileLipsChessCleverHungryHer EyesInvitedChess Players
Book:The Awakening and Selected Stories of Kate Chopin
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“Do you suppose a woman knows why she loves? Does she select? Does she say to herself, 'Go to! here is a distinguished statesman with presidential possibilities; I shall proceed to fall in love with him.' or, 'I shall set my heart upon this musician, whose fame is on every tongue?' or 'this financier, who controls the world's money markets?'”

KnowsWorldHeartDoeFallPossibilityMy HeartFameMusicianFalling In LoveTonguePresidentialDistinguishedSelectStatesmenFinanciers
Book:The Awakening: And Selected Short Stories - Beyond the Bayou, Ma'ame Pelagie, Desiree's Baby, Respectable Woman, Kiss, Pair of Silk Stockings, Locket, Reflection (Beloved Books Edition)
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“Madame Ratignolle hoped that Robert would exercise extreme caution in dealing with the Mexicans, who, she considered, were a treacherous people, unscrupulous and revengeful. She trusted she did them no injustice in thus condemning them as a race. She had known personally but one Mexican, who made and sold excellent tamales, and whom she would have trusted implicitly, so soft-spoken was he. One day he was arrested for stabbing his wife. She never knew whether he had been hanged or not.”

PeopleMadeRaceKnownWifeExerciseOne DayInjusticeExtremesExcellentTrustedCautionMexicanArrestedTreacherousCondemningStabbingRevengefulTamales
Book:The Awakening and Other Writings
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“I'm going to pull myself together for a while and think-try to determine what character of a woman I am; for, candidly, I don't know. By all the codes which I am acquainted with, I am a devilishly wicked specimen of the sex. But some way I can't convince myself that I am. I must think about it.”

ThinkingKnowsWayTryingI CanCharacterTogetherSexDetermineCodeWickedConvince
Book:The Awakening and Other Stories: (A Modern Library E-Book)
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