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Longing Quotes

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Longing Quotes

“The aura of what is veiled seduces the person to break its magic and disclose the secret. But if it is only distance and foreignness that is seductive, this has the effect of drawing the person in the direction of absolute intimacy and familiarity, a direction which destroys the aura. The stimulus of psychological distance lies in a repulsion that attracts and an attraction which ultimately repulses - a movement never in balance. We enjoy such a stimulus not only in art and the regions of contemplative silence, but above all, in life with things and persons. It forms the air of a genuine milieu without which we would atrophy. Magic that wishes to be and, yet, not to be decoded; promises that promise everything and promise nothing - whoever understands this comprehends the being of the soul in its ultimate questionability.”

“Moderation and limitation represent the highest with regard to human strivings. If also an infinite longing never abandons the person because he is rooted ... in the infinite and, thus, if a secret or open mourning never leaves him - the homesickness of one banished to finitude - so the knowledge, which belongs to the effect of limitations, gives the resignation a consoling, indeed, a cheerful character. Life closes itself around a circle. Every thing points to its place and a glimpse in the space of nature reveals the law of modesty. Separation is necessary so that unification can demonstrate itself; longing is necessary so that silence does not become rigid.”

“Someone once told me that the book on someone's bedside table reveals a lot about the person -- their tastes, but also the mental space they are in. Perhaps Jihyun -- based on this song -- is dreaming of a simple, conventional life. He might always have been that way. It's a good thing, I think, to be able to listen to a popular song and be able to feel something. That means you are part of a larger world, the majority of people. I want that life -- it's simple, pleasant way to live.”

“I was always longing for something. Longing in my body was so familiar I didn’t usually notice the feeling; that would have been like a magnet experiencing its own field, the pull toward, the hungry mouth. It was easy to mistake the emptiness of longing as something that wanted filling with M&M’s, time with friends, new clothes, accomplishments, a boyfriend, and it was also easy to be frightened by the ceaseless dark cave call of I am alone and I may die.”

“Her golden throated scent like pastry soaked in milk hovered, her wet reptile mouth gave kisses seen only in the mind, raised and heightened to altars of breezy hate. With a glowing white back-light, pastel images in soft focus moved, danced, in a contorted frenzy, part of a bitter hued blue smoking reverie.”

“I think all cultural epochs are characterised by these two modes, the existence of a future and the absence of a future, and the strange thing is that culture seems to strive towards the absence of future, as if that were the highest form, when all longings have been fulfilled, but it isn't, because then longing turns towards the past, or towards something else that has been lost or was never accomplished.”

“No escogemos nuestros corazones, ni mucho menos la mochila que se cierne sobre nuestras espaldas. No siempre decidimos ser conscientemente crueles o insensibles. A veces es un mero acto de supervivencia. Pero, en ocasiones, existe una fortaleza que sólo puede surgir de la necesidad, de haber experimentado circunstancias adversas. Federico comprendía que había sido un privilegiado y que todo lo que le afectaba eran pequeñeces ante los ojos de los demás. No había vivido en pobreza, en guerras, en abandono o negligencia. Sin embargo, tenía un dolor profundo que nunca desaparecía y que constituía un anhelo insaciable que había signado su vida. Y era la necesidad de amor.”

“The following morning, Wilhelmina awoke to a lone lily pad moaning after escaping from an exquisite Monet painting piece that was hosting some shades of watercolor chips that were a century and half-oldish that subbed as a dish for artsy gourmet-eating tadpoles that had both a yearning for the foggy past and longing for their froggy future.”

“Hunger is physical of course, but it is many other things besides. A longing to take up space, to want, to need. To fall in love. To establish boundaries. To say “not good enough” or “not this” or “not now.” To change directions. To start again. To fail. To forgive. To be uncompromisingly human.”

“Sea Longing" A thousand miles beyond this sun-steeped wall Somewhere the waves creep cool along the sand, The ebbing tide forsakes the listless land With the old murmur, long and musical; The windy waves mount up and curve and fall, And round the rocks the foam blows up like snow,-- Tho' I am inland far, I hear and know, For I was born the sea's eternal thrall. I would that I were there and over me The cold insistence of the tide would roll, Quenching this burning thing men call the soul,-- Then with the ebbing I should drift and be Less than the smallest shell along the shoal, Less than the sea-gulls calling to the sea.”