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Sylvia Plath Quotes

Poet

American poet, novelist, and playwright. Her works are known for their profound emotion and unique style, and she is considered one of the most important female writers of the 20th century.

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All Bell Jar Ifs Thinking Writing Feels People Want Knows World Feminism Men Being A Woman Classic Way I Can Sylvia Plath Depression Heart Felt Made

Famous Sylvia Plath Quotes

“Being born a woman is my awful tragedy. From the moment I was conceived I was doomed to sprout breasts and ovaries rather than penis and scrotum; to have my whole circle of action, thought and feeling rigidly circumscribed by my inescapable feminity. Yes, my consuming desire to mingle with road crews, sailors and soldiers, bar room regulars--to be a part of a scene, anonymous, listening, recording--all is spoiled by the fact that I am a girl, a female always in danger of assault and battery. My consuming interest in men and their lives is often misconstrued as a desire to seduce them, or as an invitation to intimacy. Yet, God, I want to talk to everybody I can as deeply as I can. I want to be able to sleep in an open field, to travel west, to walk freely at night...”

Feminism Equality Feminism Woman Submission

Book:The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

Source: The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

“if a man chooses to be promiscuous, he may still turn up his nose at promiscuity. He may still demand a woman be faithful to him, to save him from his own lust. But women have lust, too. Why should they be relegated to the position of custodian of emotions, watcher of the infants, feeder of soul,body and pride of man?”

Feminism Sylvia Plath Journals

Book:The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

Source: The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

“Neurotic, ha!" I let out a scornful laugh. "If neurotic is wanting two mutually exclusive things at one and the same time, then I'm neurotic as hell. I'll be flying back and forth between one mutually exclusive thing and another for the rest of my days.”

Feminism

Book:the bell jar

Source: the bell jar

“That's one of the reasons I never wanted to get married. The last thing I wanted was infinite security and to be the place an arrow shoots off from. I wanted change and excitement and to shoot off in all different directions myself, like the colored arrows from a Fourth of July Rocket.”

Feminism Classics

Author:Sylvia Plath

“Y yo sabía que a pesar de todas las rosas y besos y cenas en restaurantes que un hombre hacía llover sobre una mujer antes de casarse con ella, lo que secretamente deseaba para cuando la ceremonia de boda terminase era aplastarla bajo sus pies como la alfombra de la señora Willard.”

Feminism Female Woman Feminismo Mujer Matrimonio

Book:the bell jar

Source: the bell jar

“Kiss me and you will see how important I am.”

Important Feminism Kissing Classic Being A Woman Kiss Me Kissing Him Kissing You Romantic Kiss Kissing Funny Romantic Kissing Just Kiss Me Cute Kiss Cute Kissing Kisses And Hugs

Book:The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

Source: The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

“And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.”

Source: The Journals of Sylvia Plath

“Perhaps when we find ourselves wanting everything, it is because we are dangerously close to wanting nothing.”

Inspirational Goal Feminism Classic Being A Woman

Author:Sylvia Plath

“There must be quite a few things that a hot bath won't cure, but I don't know many of them.”

Source: the bell jar

“Is there no way out of the mind?”

Way Mind Feminism Mental Health Classic Frustration Being A Woman

Author:Sylvia Plath

“But life is long. And it is the long run that balances the short flare of interest and passion.”

Life Long Running Life Is Passion Interest Feminism Balance Classic Long Runs Being A Woman Flare

Book:The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

Source: The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

“I am too pure for you or anyone.”

Feminism Pure Classic Purity Being A Woman

Book:Poemas

Source: Poemas

“Apparently, the most difficult feat for a Cambridge male is to accept a woman not merely as feeling, not merely as thinking, but as managing a complex, vital interweaving of both.”

Thinking Feelings Difficult Women Accepting Feminism Ego Independent Complexes Males Classic Fake People Being A Woman Feats Cambridge

Author:Sylvia Plath

“The silence depressed me. It wasn't the silence of silence. It was my own silence.”

My Own Silence Feminism Depression Classic Being A Woman Bell Jar

Book:the bell jar

Source: the bell jar

“I have the choice of being constantly active and happy or introspectively passive and sad. Or I can go mad by ricocheting in between.”

I Can Choices Sadness Feminism Mad Active Classic Passive Being A Woman

Book:The Journals of Sylvia Plath

Source: The Journals of Sylvia Plath

“Let me live, love and say it well in good sentences.”

Writing Wells Feminism Let Me Sentences Classic Being A Woman Bell Jar Live Love

Book:The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

Source: The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

“There is nothing like puking with somebody to make you into old friends.”

Friendship Inspiring Feminism Friends Classic Real Friends Old Friends Being A Woman One Line Friendship Best Friendship Bell Jar Funny Best Friend Old Friendship

Book:the bell jar

Source: the bell jar

“Remember, remember, this is now, and now, and now. Live it, feel it, cling to it. I want to become acutely aware of all I’ve taken for granted.”

Want Life Feels Remember Memories Taken Feminism Awareness Granted Classic Being A Woman Taken For Granted Live Every Moment

Book:The Journals of Sylvia Plath

Source: The Journals of Sylvia Plath

“If you expect nothing from anybody, you’re never disappointed.”

Ifs Feminism Expectations Classic Disappointed Being A Woman Expect Nothing Bell Jar Never Expect

Author:Sylvia Plath

“I can never read all the books I want; I can never be all the people I want and live all the lives I want. I can never train myself in all the skills I want. And why do I want? I want to live and feel all the shades, tones and variations of mental and physical experience possible in life. And I am horribly limited.”

People Want Feels I Can Book Feminism Skills Train Classic Tone Shade Variation Being A Woman Famous Inspirational

Author:Sylvia Plath

“I must get my soul back from you; I am killing my flesh without it.”

Soul Feminism Killing Flesh My Soul Classic Being A Woman

Author:Sylvia Plath

“Can you understand? Someone, somewhere, can you understand me a little, love me a little? For all my despair, for all my ideals, for all that - I love life. But it is hard, and I have so much - so very much to learn.”

Life Littles Hard Feminism Despair Ideals Classic Love Life Being A Woman Understand Me I Love Life Little Love

Book:The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

Source: The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

“I felt very still and empty, the way the eye of a tornado must feel, moving dully along in the middle of the surrounding hullabaloo.”

Way Feels Stills Eye Moving Felt Feminism Middle Empty Chaos Classic Emptiness Being A Woman Numbness Tornadoes Bell Jar

Book:the bell jar

Source: the bell jar

“And when at last you find someone to whom you feel you can pour out your soul, you stop in shock at the words you utter— they are so rusty, so ugly, so meaningless and feeble from being kept in the small cramped dark inside you so long.”

Feels Long Soul Lasts Dark Secret Feminism Loneliness Ugly Your Soul Classic Shock Meaningless Being A Woman Grinning Opiates Gaiety Sharing Secrets

Book:The Journals of Sylvia Plath

Source: The Journals of Sylvia Plath

“I didn’t want any flowers, I only wanted to lie with my hands turned up and be utterly empty. How free it is, you have no idea how free.”

Want Ideas Hands Wanted Lying Feminism Flower Empty No Idea Classic Being A Woman Peacefulness Daze

Book:Ariel

Source: Ariel

“Perhaps some day I'll crawl back home, beaten, defeated. But not as long as I can make stories out of my heartbreak, beauty out of sorrow.”

Long I Can Stories Home Feminism Sorrow Heartbreak Chaos Classic Defeated Beaten Back Home Being A Woman Heart Break

Book:The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

Source: The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

“I like people too much or not at all. I've got to go down deep, to fall into people, to really know them.”

People Knows Fall Too Much Feminism Classic Being A Woman

Book:The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

Source: The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

“If they substituted the word 'Lust' for 'Love' in the popular songs it would come nearer the truth.”

Ifs Inspirational Song Feminism Lust Classic Being A Woman Popular Song Love Lust Love And Lust

Book:The Journals of Sylvia Plath

Source: The Journals of Sylvia Plath

“I desire the things that will destroy me in the end.”

Ends Desire Feminism Classic Being A Woman

Author:Sylvia Plath

“What horrifies me most is the idea of being useless: well-educated, brilliantly promising, and fading out into an indifferent middle age.”

Wells Ideas Age Feminism Middle Educated Useless Classic Indifferent Middle Ages Being A Woman Fading Well Educated

Book:The Journals of Sylvia Plath

Source: The Journals of Sylvia Plath

“When you give someone your whole heart and he doesn't want it, you cannot take it back. It's gone forever.”

Want Giving Heart Whole Gone Forever Feminism Heartbreak Betrayal Memorable Classic Unrequited Love Abandonment Being A Woman Unrequited

Author:Sylvia Plath

“The hardest thing, I think, is to live richly in the present, without letting it be tainted & spoiled out of fear for the future or regret for a badly-managed past.”

Past Feminism Regret Hardest Classic Hardest Thing Being A Woman Tainted

Author:Sylvia Plath

“I love people. Everybody. I love them, I think, as a stamp collector loves his collection. Every story, every incident, every bit of conversation is raw material for me.”

People Thinking Stories Bits Feminism Materials Conversation Classic Collections Stamps Incidents Being A Woman Collectors Raw Materials

Book:The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

Source: The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

“Why the hell are we conditioned into the smooth strawberry-and-cream Mother-Goose-world, Alice-in-Wonderland fable, only to be broken on the wheel as we grow older and become aware of ourselves as individuals with a dull responsibility in life?”

Source: The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

“I never feel so much myself as when I'm in a hot bath.”

Feels Feminism Hot Classic Baths Being A Woman Hot Baths

Book:the bell jar

Source: the bell jar

“I am afraid. I am not solid, but hollow. I feel behind my eyes a numb, paralyzed cavern, a pit of hell, a mimicking nothingness.”

Feels Eye Behinds Hell Feminism Classic Nothingness Hollow Pits Numb Being A Woman Paralyzed Caverns Mimicking

Book:The Journals of Sylvia Plath

Source: The Journals of Sylvia Plath

About the Author

Born: October 27, 1932
Died: February 11, 1963
Known for: Poet
Quotes: 812

Books & Sources

the bell jarRelated source material

The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia PlathRelated source material

The Journals of Sylvia PlathRelated source material

Collected PoemsRelated source material

ArielRelated source material

Letters HomeRelated source material

Ariel: The Restored EditionRelated source material

Winter TreesRelated source material

The Collected PoemsRelated source material

Letters of Sylvia Plath, Volume I: 1940-1956Related source material

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