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Catharsis Quotes

Browse 141 quotes about Catharsis.

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Catharsis Quotes

“The unbelievable that came true stayed with me, and I believed in the unbelievable, in the star that had followed me through life, and with its gleam constantly before my eyes I began to believe in it more and more, because it had made me a millionaire, and now that I had been brought to my knees I realized that my star was brighter than ever, that only now would I be able to see its true brightness, because my eyes had been weakened by everything I had lived through, weakened so that they could see more and know more.”

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Book:I Served the King of England
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“I fall. I fall and fall, air whipping my face, my shredded arms and legs. It’s almost a relief. A relief to know that everything is going to end in just another instant, when my body hits the water, when every bone breaks, and I sink beneath the waves. I’ll be dead then, and the pain flaring through my senses from all those deadly cuts will be over. The fear of the future will be over as well, and my ten years of enslavement. All will be done.”

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Book:Entranced
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“And this is the unwritten history of man, his unseen, negative accomplishment, his power to do without gratification for himself provided there is something great, something into which his being, and all beings can go. He does not need meaning as long as such intensity has scope. Because then it is self-evident; it is meaning.”

SpiritReligionHumanityHopePoliticsLossHistoryPowerMankindStrengthRevolutionHumanWeaknessRedemptionManDenialDelusionBeliefsFlawedCauseCatharsisMassesFlawFall Of ManParadise LostWhy The World Needs Christ
Book:Herzog
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“That afternoon was the first time I felt... I don't know how to describe it exactly. My head was in Dad's lap and all the happiness that I'd missed was being compressed into that moment. I looked up at him and I was no longer me. I was Mom, but not as I knew her. This wasn't her forcing her darkness on me, like a bag over my head. No, this was something else. I'd become Mom from many years ago. Dad felt it too, I could tell. Maybe it would have lasted longer if not for Edie, talking and talking, pressing and pressing. She wanted to take me back to the other mother. The one in the mental hospital who needed me brought to her, tied and quartered, like a sacrifice.”

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Book:The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish
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“People ask all the time what I learned in the camps. But the camps weren’t therapy. What do you think these places were? Universities? We didn’t go there to learn. One becomes very clear about these things. What are you asking for? Forgiveness for her? Or do you just want to feel better yourself? My advice, go to the theatre, if you want catharsis, please. Go to literature. Don't go to the camps. Nothing comes out of the camps. Nothing.”

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Book:The Reader
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“The myth of Oedipus . . . arouses powerful intellectual and emotional reactions in the adult-so much so, that it may provide a cathartic experience, as Aristotle taught all tragedy does. [A reader] may wonder why he is so deeply moved; and in responding to what he observes as his emotional reaction, ruminating about the mythical events and what these mean to him, a person may come to clarify his thoughts and feelings. With this, certain inner tensions which are the consequence of events long past may be relieved; previously unconscious material can then enter one's awareness and become accessible for conscious working through. This can happen if the observer is deeply moved emotionally by the myth, and at the sametime strongly motivated intellectually to understand it.”

StoriesTragedySelf AwarenessMeaningMythsCatharsis
Book:The uses of enchantment: the meaning and importance of fairy tales
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“My friend asked me if it had been cathartic, to write my memoir. I looked down at the sculptures—it was cathartic for me to look at them, but I could imagine it might have been hell to make them (I was cheered / when I came first to know / that there were flowers also / in hell). No, I answered—how was it for you to read it? Aristotle, in his Poetics, never promised catharsis for the makers of art, only for the audience.”

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Book:The Reenactments
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