Quotessence
Home / Authors / Sylvia Plath
Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath Quotes

Poet

Filter quotes by topic

AllBell JarIfsThinkingWritingFeelsPeopleWantKnowsWorldFeminismMenBeing A WomanClassicWayI CanSylvia PlathDepressionHeartFeltMade

Famous Sylvia Plath Quotes

“Ironically, Henry James' biography comforts me & I long to make known to him his posthumous reputation he wrote, in pain, gave all his life (which is more than I could think of doing I have Ted, will have children but few friends) & the critics insulted & mocked him, readers didn't read him.”

ThinkingChildrenLongPainKnownReaderComfortCriticsReputationBiographiesInsultedFew FriendsPosthumous
Book:The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath
Create image

“I think the whole emphasis in England, in universities, on practical criticism (but not that so much as on historical criticism, knowing what period a line comes from) this is almost paralysing. In America, in University, we read - what? - T. S. Eliot, Dylan Thomas, Yeats, that is where we began. Shakespeare flaunted in the background. I'm not sure I agree with this, but I think that' for the young poet, the writing poet, it is not quite so frightening to go to university in America as it is in England, for these reasons.”

ThinkingWritingReasonWholeAmericaYoungLinesKnowingPoetPeriodsCriticismEnglandAgreeHistoricalUniversityPracticalsBackgroundsNot SureFrighteningEmphasisDylanEliotYeats
Author:Sylvia Plath
Create image

“I am not a historian, but I find myself being more and more fascinated by history and now I find myself reading more and more about history. I am very interested in Napoleon, at the present: I'm very interested in battles, in wars, in Gallipoli, the First World War and so on, and I think that as I age I am becoming more and more historical. I certainly wasn't at all in my early twenties.”

ThinkingWorldFirstsWarAgeReadingBecomingBattleTwentiesHistoricalWar Of The WorldsHistorianFascinatedBecoming MoreFirst World WarReading MoreGallipoli
Author:Sylvia Plath
Create image

“I’d discovered, after a lot of extreme apprehension about what spoons to use, that if you do something incorrect at table with a certain arrogance, as if you knew perfectly well you were doing it properly, you can get away with it and nobody will think you are bad-mannered or poorly brought up. They will think you are original and very witty.”

IfsThinkingWellsUseCertainFoodOriginalsTablesCookingWittyExtremesArroganceGet AwayCulinarySpoonsApprehensionVery Witty
Book:the bell jar
Create image

“I want to taste and glory in each day, and never be afraid to experience pain; and never shut myself up in a numb core of nonfeeling, or stop questioning and criticizing life and take the easy way out. To learn and think: to think and live; to live and learn: this always, with new insight, new understanding, and new love.”

ThinkingWayWantPainEasyUnderstandingTasteGloryInsightCoreEach DayCriticizeQuestioningNumbEasy WayLive And Learn
Book:The Journals of Sylvia Plath
Create image

“Strange, when one thinks of all the other boys, infinite experimental kisses, test tube infatuations, crushes, pseudo-loves. All through this physical separation, through the testing and the trying of the others, there has been this peculiar rapport, comradeship, of us two so alike, so similar, but for science-boy and humanities-girl - the introspection, self examination, biannual deep summarizing conversations, and then the platonic parting.”

ThinkingTryingHas BeensTwoSelfHumanityGirlBoysStrangeConversationKissingTestsInfiniteSeparationCrushPeculiarIntrospectionTestingInfatuationExaminationPartingTubesPseudoPlatonicRapportSelf-examinationComradeshipSummarizing
Author:Sylvia Plath
Create image

“I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead; I lift my lids and all is born again. (I think I made you up inside my head.) The stars go waltzing out in blue and red, And arbitrary blackness gallops in: I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead. I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane. (I think I made you up inside my head.)”

ThinkingWorldMadeEyeStarsBornBedMoonRedBlueInsaneLiftsArbitraryBorn AgainBlacknessBewitched
Book:the bell jar
Create image

“And, I think: I am but one more drop in the great sea of matter, defined, with the ability to realize my existence. Of the millions, I, too, was potentially everything at birth. I, too, was stunted, narrowed, warped, by my environment, my outcroppings of heredity. I, too, will find a set of beliefs, of standards to live by, yet the very satisfaction of finding them will be marred by the fact that I have reached the ultimate in shallow, two-dimensional living — a set of values.”

ThinkingTwoMatterFactsValuesBeliefRealizingAbilityExistenceMillionsEnvironmentSeaBirthFindingsStandardsUltimateSatisfactionDefinedLive ByShallowHeredity
Book:The Journals of Sylvia Plath
Create image

“But I am I now; and so many other millions are so irretrievably their own special variety of 'I' that I can hardly bear to think of it. I: how firm a letter; how reassuring the three strokes: one vertical, proud and assertive, and then the two short horizontal lines in quick, smug succession. The pen scratching on the paper…I…I…I…I…I…I.”

ThinkingI CanTwoThreeLinesMillionsSpecialBearsProudPaperLettersVarietyFirmPensStrokesSuccessionReassuringVerticalAssertiveHorizontalHorizontal Lines
Book:The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath
Create image

“So much working, reading, thinking, living to do. A lifetime is not long enough. Nor youth to old age long enough. Immortality and permanence be damned. Sure I want them, but they are nonexistent, and won't matter when I rot underground. All I want to say is: I made the best of a mediocre job. It was a good fight while it lasted. And so life goes.”

ThinkingWantLongMadeMatterEnoughAgeJobsFightingReadingYouthLifetimeOld AgeImmortalityMediocrePermanenceGood Fight
Book:The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath
Create image

“... you looked around and saw everybody either married or busy and happy and thinking and being creative, and you felt scared, sick, lethargic, worst of all, not wanting to cope. You saw visions of yourself in a straightjacket, and a drain on the family, murdering your mother in actuality, killing the edifice of love and respect built up over the years in the hearts of other people.”

PeopleThinkingYearsHeartMotherFeltVisionCreativeSawsWorstDepressionMarriedBuiltSickKillingBusyScaredIllnessMental IllnessBe CreativeDrainsLove And RespectActualityEdificeLethargic
Book:The Journals of Sylvia Plath
Create image