The agony of my feelings allowed me no respite; no incident occurred from which my rage and misery could not extract its food.
Interpretation
The quote expresses the overwhelming nature of deep emotions and how they can feed on experiences of pain and suffering.
In this quote, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley reflects on the intensity of her emotions, suggesting that the pain and turmoil she feels are all-consuming. She implies that her feelings of rage and misery do not allow her any moment of peace, as they continuously find sustenance in every negative experience she encounters. This points to the profound relationship between emotional states and personal suffering, highlighting how negative feelings can perpetuate themselves if not addressed.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion about mental health awareness.
Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of a void, but out of chaos; the materials must in the first place be afforded; it can give form to dark, shapeless substances, but cannot bring into being the substance itself.
The instructor can scarcely give sensibility where it is essentially wanting, nor talent to the unpercipient block. But he can cultivate and direct the affections of the pupil, who puts forth, as a parasite, tendrils by which to cling, not knowing to what - to a supporter or a destroyer.
What terrified me will terrify others; and I need only describe the spectre which had haunted my midnight pillow.
I shall commit my thoughts to paper, it is true; but that is a poor medium for the communication of feeling. I desire the company of a man who could sympathize with me, whose eyes would reply to mine.
Heavy misfortunes have befallen us, but let us only cling closer to what remains, and transfer our love for those whom we have lost to those who yet live. Our circle will be small, but bound close by the ties of affection and mutual misfortune. And when time shall have softened your despair, new and dear objects of care will be born to replace those of whom we have been so cruelly deprived.
Hateful day when I received life!' I exclaimed in agony. 'Accursed creator! Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust? God, in pity, made man beautiful and alluring, after his own image; but my form is a filthy type of yours, more horrid even from the very resemlance. Satan had his companions, fellow-devils, to admire and encourage him; but I am solitary and abhorred.' - Frankenstein
We gain internal freedom through external actions.
Real isn't how you are made. It's a thing that happens to you. Sometimes it hurts, but when you are Real you don't mind being hurt. It doesn't happen all at once. You become. Once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand. Once you are Real you can't become unreal again. It lasts for always.
For many years, I have lived uncomfortably with the belief that most planning and architectural design suffers for lack of real and basic purpose. The ultimate purpose, it seems to me, must be the improvement of mankind.
In the following pages I offer nothing more than simple facts, plain arguments, and common sense; and have no other preliminaries to settle with the reader, than that he will divest himself of prejudice and repossession, and suffer his reason and feelings to determine for themselves; and that he will put on, or rather that he will not put off, the true character of man, and generously enlarge his view beyond the present day.
The natural purity of our mind is of no use to us if we are not aware of it, _x000D_ _x000D_ and if we do not integrate it with our moving mind. _x000D_ _x000D_ If we realize our innate purity, but only integrate with it from time to time, we are not totally awakened._x000D_ _x000D_ Being in total integration all the time is final realization
War has been more common than peace, and extended periods of peace have been rare in a world divided into multiple states
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.