I have this demon who wants me to run away screaming if I am going to be flawed, fallible. It wants me to think I’m so good I must be perfect. Or nothing. I am, on the contrary, something: a being who gets tired, has shyness to fight, has more trouble than most facing people easily.
Sylvia Plath
Self-doubt, Personal Struggle, Emotional Conflict, Perfectionism, Identity, Vulnerability
Sylvia Plath’s Quotes On Topics
Moving Forward | Bleakness | Desperation | Equality | Baby Protest | Life Assimilation | Mental Shades | Emotional Restraint | Solitary | Painful Beauty | Wincing Flesh | Emotional Confinement | Facade | Vocal Despair | Self-care Rituals | Openness | Empty Feeling | Morning Disillusionment | Joy | Partner | More
More Sylvia Plath Quotes
“Hurl yourself at goals above your head and bear the lacerations that come when you slip and make a fool of yourself. Try always, as long as you have breath in your body, to take the hard way–and work, work, work to build yourself into a rich, continually evolving entity.” Sylvia Plath
Ambitious Goals, Hard Way, Evolving Self, Goals, Work, Evolving
Sylvia Plath Ambitious Goals, Hard Way, Evolving Self, Goals, Work, Evolving“I have done, this year, what I said I would: overcome my fear of facing a blank page day after day, acknowledging myself, in my deepest emotions, a writer, come what may.” Sylvia Plath
Writer’s Journey, Emotional Expression, Creative Process, Personal Growth, Fear Overcome, Self-realization
Sylvia Plath Writer’s Journey, Emotional Expression, Creative Process, Personal Growth, Fear Overcome, Self-realization“The artist’s life nourishes itself on the particular, the concrete.” Sylvia Plath
Artistic Focus, Concrete Details, Creative Nourishment, Artist, Focus, Nourishment
Sylvia Plath Artistic Focus, Concrete Details, Creative Nourishment, Artist, Focus, Nourishment“We stayed at home to write, to consolidate our outstretched selves.” Sylvia Plath
Creativity, Solitude, Writing, Expression, Focus, Self
Sylvia Plath Creativity, Solitude, Writing, Expression, Focus, Self“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?” Sylvia Plath
Conditioning, Societal Expectations, Emotional Awakening, Individuality, Disillusionment, Identity
Sylvia Plath Conditioning, Societal Expectations, Emotional Awakening, Individuality, Disillusionment, Identity“The box is only temporary.” Sylvia Plath
Change, Impermanence, Hope, Adaptability, Resilience, Transformation
Sylvia Plath Change, Impermanence, Hope, Adaptability, Resilience, Transformation“What horrifies me most is the idea of being useless: well-educated, brilliantly promising, and fading out into an indifferent middle age. What is my life for and what am I going to do with it? I don’t know and I’m afraid. 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 my life.” Sylvia Plath
Existential Angst, Ambitious Longing, Middle Age, Life, Angst, Ambition
Sylvia Plath Existential Angst, Ambitious Longing, Middle Age, Life, Angst, Ambition“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.” Sylvia Plath
Writable Life, Creativity Struggle, Overcoming Doubt, Imagination, Courage, Art
Sylvia Plath Writable Life, Creativity Struggle, Overcoming Doubt, Imagination, Courage, Art“At twenty I tried to die And get back, back, back to you. I thought even the bones would do.” Sylvia Plath
Tried Death, Emotional Return, Desperate Longing, Death, Bones, Return
Sylvia Plath Tried Death, Emotional Return, Desperate Longing, Death, Bones, Return“If I tried to describe my personality, I'd start to gush about living by the ocean half my life and being brought up on 'Alice in Wonderland' and believing in magic for years and years.” Sylvia Plath
Personality, Imagination, Creativity, Memories, Nostalgia, Fantasy
Sylvia Plath Personality, Imagination, Creativity, Memories, Nostalgia, Fantasy“There is a charge for the eyeing of my scars, there is a charge for the hearing of my heart — it really goes. And there is a charge, a very large charge, for a word or a touch, or a bit of blood or a piece of my hair or my clothes.” Sylvia Plath
Emotional Charge, Personal Scars, Vulnerable Exchanges, Scars, Charge, Heart
Sylvia Plath Emotional Charge, Personal Scars, Vulnerable Exchanges, Scars, Charge, Heart“Some girl a hundred years ago once lived as I do. And she is dead. I am the present, but I know I, too, will pass. The high moment, the burning flash, come and are gone, continuous quicksand. And I don’t want to die.” Sylvia Plath
Temporal Passage, Mortality, Fleeting Moments, Existence, Fleeting Joy, Emotional Struggle
Sylvia Plath Temporal Passage, Mortality, Fleeting Moments, Existence, Fleeting Joy, Emotional Struggle“Every day is precious and I feel infinitely sad at this time melting away from me.” Sylvia Plath
Time Slips, Fleeting Moments, Deep Sadness, Life Passage, Precious Moments, Emotional Loss
Sylvia Plath Time Slips, Fleeting Moments, Deep Sadness, Life Passage, Precious Moments, Emotional Loss“So I kiss him, and there is the great dark sea ahead.” Sylvia Plath
Kiss, Love, Longing, Sea, Vastness, Mystery
Sylvia Plath Kiss, Love, Longing, Sea, Vastness, Mystery“I must get my soul back from you; I am killing my flesh without it.” Sylvia Plath
Soul Retrieval, Emotional Rebirth, Self-renewal, Dependency, Existential Loss, Identity
Sylvia Plath Soul Retrieval, Emotional Rebirth, Self-renewal, Dependency, Existential Loss, Identity“It’s like watching paris from an express caboose heading in the opposite direction – every second the city gets smaller and smaller, only you feel it’s really you getting smaller and smaller and lonelier and lonelier, rushing away from all those lights and that excitement at about a million miles an hour.” Sylvia Plath
Loss, Isolation, Distance, Change, Nostalgia, Personal Journey
Sylvia Plath Loss, Isolation, Distance, Change, Nostalgia, Personal Journey“Why is it that I find it so difficult to accept the present moment, whole as an apple, without cutting and hacking at it to find a purpose, or setting it up on a shelf with other apples to measure its worth or trying to pickle it in brine to preserve it, and crying to find it turns all brown and is no longer simply the lovely apple I was given in the morning?” Sylvia Plath
Acceptance, Preservation, Impermanence, Self-worth, Expectations, Mindfulness
Sylvia Plath Acceptance, Preservation, Impermanence, Self-worth, Expectations, Mindfulness“Love set you going like a fat gold watch. The midwife slapped your footsoles, and your bald cry Took its place among the elements.” Sylvia Plath
Birth Moments, Cry Elements, New Beginnings, Love, Birth, Cry
Sylvia Plath Birth Moments, Cry Elements, New Beginnings, Love, Birth, Cry