Wild honey smells of freedom The dust - of sunlight The mouth of a young girl, like a violet But gold - smells of nothing.
Anna AkhmatovaRead
I seem to myself, as in a dream, Am accidental guest in this dreadful body.
Interpretation
The quote reflects a sense of existential questioning and the feeling of being an outsider in one's own existence.
In this quote, Anna Akhmatova expresses a profound sense of disconnection from her physical self, likening her existence to that of an unintended visitor within a body that feels foreign or burdensome. This dream-like perspective suggests a contemplation on identity and the struggles of being in one's own skin, highlighting the complexities of human consciousness and the often surreal experience of life.
In practice
This quote can be used during a philosophical discussion about the nature of self and consciousness.
Wild honey smells of freedom The dust - of sunlight The mouth of a young girl, like a violet But gold - smells of nothing.
And you know, I agree to everything: I will condemn, I will forget, I will give comfort to the enemy, Darkness will be light and sin lovely.
Who will grieve for this woman? Does she not seem too insignificant for our concern? Yet in my heart I never will deny her, Who suffered death because she chose to turn.
I myself, from the very beginning, Seemed to myself like someone's dream or delirium Or a reflection in someone else's mirror, Without flesh, without meaning, without a name. Already I knew the list of crimes That I was destined to commit.
If you were music I would listen to you ceaselessly And my low spirits would brighten up.
Not, not mine: it's somebody else's wound; I could never have borne it. So take the thing that happened, hide it, stick it in the ground; whisk the lamps away.
Experience has shown, and a true philosophy will always show, that a vast, perhaps the larger portion of the truth arises from the seemingly irrelevant.
It is clear that thought is not free if the profession of certain opinions makes it impossible to earn a living.
Boredom is the feeling that everything is a waste of time; serenity, that nothing is.
Prison life, fortunately, I spent a lot of years, about 18 years with other prisoners, and, as I say, they enriched your soul.
Truth has been relegated to subjectivity; beauty has been subjugated to the beholder; and as millions are idiotized night after night, a global commune has been constructed with the arts enjoying a totalitarian rule.
That which lives on reason lives against the spirit.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.