They don't ask much of you. They only want you to hate the things you love and to love the things you despise.
Boris PasternakRead
A corner draft fluttered the flame And the white fever of temptation Upswept its angel wings that cast A cruciform shadow.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on the struggle between desire and purity.
In this quote, Pasternak uses vivid imagery to convey the conflict between temptation and the purity of one's spirit. The fluttering draft symbolizes the unpredictability of desire, which disrupts the serene state represented by the angel's wings, creating a cruciform shadow that suggests a moral struggle between what is virtuous and the allure of temptation.
Themes
TemptationDesirePurityConflictMorality
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about overcoming personal struggles, this quote can illustrate the internal battles we face.
More from Boris Pasternak
All quotes βEven so, one step from my grave, I believe that cruelty, spite, The powers of darkness will in time, Be crushed by the spirit of light.
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He is her glory. Any woman could say it. For every one of them, God is in her child. Mothers of great men must have been familiar with this feeling, but then, all women are mothers of great men -- it isn't their fault if life disappoints them later.
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Our evenings are farewells. Our parties are testaments. So that the secret stream of suffering. May warm the cold of life.
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The most extraordinary discoveries are made when the artist is overwhelmed by what he has to say.
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Oh, how one wishes sometimes to escape from the meaningless dullness of human eloquence, from all those sublime phrases, to take refuge in nature, apparently so inarticulate, or in the wordlessness of long, grinding labor, of sound sleep, of true music, or of a human understanding rendered speechless by emotion!
Boris PasternakRead
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