Embarking on a journey through Sylvia Plath's literary labyrinth is an exploration of profound emotion, heightened introspection, and poetic eloquence. Her quotes, deep and impactful, touch on themes of identity, life, and existential reflection. This article aims to harness the magnetic allure of Plath's words, presenting them in categories to resonate with the diverse aspects of human experience. From the depths of self-discovery to the poignant expressions of life's dichotomies, Sylvia Plath's legacy endures through her resonant quotes, inviting us all to delve deeper into our own psyches while understanding hers.
Quotes on Self-Discovery
"I am, I am, I am."
"Go out and do something. It isn’t your room that’s a prison, it’s yourself."
"The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt."
"Perhaps when we find ourselves wanting everything, it is because we are dangerously close to wanting nothing."
"I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart; I am, I am, I am."
"If you expect nothing from somebody you are never disappointed."
"Nothing stinks like a pile of unpublished writing."
"Is there no way out of the mind?"
"Reality is relative."
"I write only because there is a voice within me that will not be still."
"Kiss me and you will see how important I am."
"What a man is is an arrow into the future and what a woman is is the place the arrow shoots off from."
Quotes on Mental Health
"I can never read all the books I want."
"To the person in the bell jar, blank and stopped as a dead baby, the world itself is the bad dream."
"And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise."
"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."
"Dying is an art, like everything else. I do it exceptionally well."
"It seemed silly to wash one day when I would only have to wash again the next."
"I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead; I lift my expressive face and it loads again."
"Because wherever I sat — on the deck of a ship or at a street cafe in Paris or Bangkok — I would be sitting under the same glass bell jar, stewing in my own sour air."
"If the future looks dark, we're the ones who have brought it that way."
"Yes, there is joy, fulfillment and companionship—but the loneliness of the soul in its appalling self-consciousness is horrible and overpowering."
"Can you understand? Someone, somewhere, can you understand me a little, love me? And that, of course, is impossible."
"The darkness twists itself under the floorboards, and I do not know where to put it down."
Quotes on Writing and Creativity
"Let me live, love, and say it well in good sentences."
"Everything in life is writable about if you have the guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise."
"The silence depressed me. It wasn't the silence of silence. It was my own silence."
"I talk to God but the sky is empty."
"Poetry, I feel, is a tyrannical discipline. You've got to get everything in one line: it's impossible to say everything you mean."
"I love my rejection slips. They show me I try."
"I can never be all the people I want and live all the lives I want."
"The blood jet is poetry and there is no stopping it."
"Writing is a product of silence."
"Kiss me and you will see how important I am."
"It is awful to want to go away and to want to go nowhere."
"I want to be able to sleep in an open field, to travel west, to walk freely at night."
Quotes on Life and Reality
"I am afraid of getting older. I am afraid of getting married. Spare me from cooking three meals a day—spare me from wiping children’s noses and running car pools."
"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."
"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."
"How we need another soul to cling to, another body to keep us warm."
"I have the choice of being constantly active and happy or introspectively passive and sad."
"I must get my soul back from you; I am killing my flesh without it."
"If you expect nothing from anybody, you're never disappointed."
"If I didn't think, I'd be much happier."
"I didn't want any flowers, I only wanted to lie with my hands turned up and be utterly empty."
"What did my fingers do before they held him?"
"The trouble was, if you were a mind in a body, you were a failed mind. There was simply no way to be good, to reach even the most desultory approximation of contentment."
"My head is busy, busy, busy, making up ready-made business for my hands."
Quotes on Relationships
"Perhaps when we find ourselves wanting everything it is because we are dangerously close to wanting nothing."
"If you expect nothing from somebody you are never disappointed."
"I must bridge the gap between adolescent glitter and mature glow."
"What horrifies me most is the idea of being useless: well-educated, brilliantly promising, and fading out into an indifferent middle age."
"I knew that if I allowed myself to panic I would draw back, impregnably entrenched in my own weakness, and lose tremendous opportunities."
"It doesn't matter who my father was; it matters who I remember he was."
"I am still a victim of myself; of my own personal injustices. I can only articulate it to you or myself, which always seems puny to me."
"Is there no way out of the mind?"
"And I'll write a hard song about the brave mythic people I thought we'd become."
"You are wife and mother and are magically indispensable. But what is it, precisely, that you do?"
"I am too pure for you or anyone."
"There’s something demoralizing about watching two people get more crazy about each other until it becomes unbearable to be in their company."
Quotes on Identity
"I am ubique and nowhere at all, a ping-pong ball, a fighting fish, a bounder, a Capricorn."
"There is nothing like puking with somebody to make you into old friends."
"Why can I never go where I am actually going, why must it always be somewhere else a little later?"
"I have always been terrified of abandonment, and I often find myself waiting for something to go wrong."
"Out of the ash I rise with my red hair and I eat men like air."
"I have never been sincerely hit on by a girl, but I have always been sincerely impressed."
"I am nobody; who are you?"
"I am the self-consumer of my woes."
"I haven't slept for ten days, because that would be too long."
"I will never be a morning person, for the moon and I are too much in love."
"I walk the black snail-kiss of sleep in Cairo night streets."
"If I want to know what I have decided, I’ll think what of you."
Quotes on Despair and Darkness
"I am terrified by this dark thing that sleeps in me."
"Dying is an art."
"Black blood in my toilet, black blood on my white year."
"The moons are so beautiful that in the night I wish I could comb them and brush my hair."
"The moment you don’t have to think about it, losing don’t matter a thing. It’s the guessing that counts."
"I am the absurd words that make senile pipe dreams and turn history inside out to make them hide."
"If suicide were an option, I’d call again."
"I hear the march of feet! Listen now! It is the stomp of thousands of slippers against mine!"
"I tap at your teeth and tongues and whispers ‘be still o still o still ʻo still – and when they answer nothing I laugh quietly and deeply and bow my head."
"I have gone out, a possessed witch, haunting the black air, braver at night."
"Can you speak or laugh? Or die slightly? But then we must say or die, because the whole point is to die, whether you win or not!"
"The darkness is silent like the old nailed down hoods of cars in a broken-down barn on a spring afternoon."
Quotes on Love
"I am too pure for you or anyone."
"When you give someone your whole heart and he doesn't want it, you cannot take it back. It's gone forever."
"How frail the human heart must be – a mirrored pool of thought."
"I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead; I lift my expressive face and it loads again."
"Is there no way out of the mind?"
"Maybe that's why we write, because language is the most obscene thing I can think of."
"I talk to God but the sky is empty."
"Where it is dry there will be wine."
"I am, I am, I am."
"If the moon smiled, she would resemble you."
"I would bite my tongue and tell you lies."
"I love my rejection slips. They show me I try."
Quotes on Feminism
"Out of the ash I rise with my red hair and I eat men like air."
"There is nothing like puking with somebody to make you into old friends."
"Why can I never go where I am actually going, why must it always be somewhere else a little later?"
"I have always been terrified of abandonment, and I often find myself waiting for something to go wrong."
"It seemed silly to wash one day when I would only have to wash again the next."
"Maybe that’s why we write, because language is the most obscene thing I can think of."
"I am the self-consumer of my woes."
"I am the absurd words that make senile pipe dreams and turn history inside out to make them hide."
"I feel good about my body because it is a body of women."
"I think my poems immediately come out of the sensuous and emotional experiences I have."
"I have lost myself in the yoga of darkness, simply afloat without seeking liberation."
"I am terrified by this dark thing that sleeps in me."
Quotes on Strength
"If you expect nothing from anybody, you're never disappointed."
"I am afraid of getting older. I am afraid of getting married. Spare me from cooking three meals a day—spare me from wiping children’s noses and running car pools."
"I knew that if I allowed myself to panic I would draw back, impregnably entrenched in my own weakness, and lose tremendous opportunities."
"The blood jet is poetry and there is no stopping it."
"The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt."
"I love my rejection slips. They show me I try."
"If you want to realize all your possibilities, you must keep your balance."
"I am, I am, I am."
"Out of the ash I rise with my red hair and I eat men like air."
"I'll never say goodbye unless I blaze or die."
"I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead."
"I am still a victim of myself; of my own personal injustices."
Final words
Sylvia Plath remains an emblematic figure whose words continue to touch the depths of human experience. Her acute observations on life, identity, mental health, creativity, and relationships reveal an intricate tapestry of thoughts that resonate profoundly across generations. By dissecting life's truths through poignant articulation, Plath challenges us to embark on an introspective journey, enduring as a testament to the power of authenticity and raw emotion. Her legacy encourages acceptance of the multifaceted human condition, as we navigate through her profound quotes, inviting us to engage more deeply with our own emotions and perspectives. Embrace this collection of quotes as a gateway to understanding, strength, and self-reflection in today’s ever-evolving world.
