You imagine the carefully pruned, shaped thing that is presented to you is truth. That is just what it isn't. The truth is improbable, the truth is fantastic; it's in what you think is a distorting mirror that you see the truth.
Jean RhysRead
If I was bound for hell, let it be hell. No more false heaven. No more damned magic.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote expresses a preference for authenticity over illusion, even if the outcome is harsh.
In this quote, Jean Rhys conveys a profound sense of disillusionment with false comforts and illusions of happiness. She acknowledges a willingness to embrace the harsh realities of life rather than settle for a deceptive facade, emphasizing the importance of living truthfully, even if it leads to a painful destination. This reflects a philosophical stance that values genuine experiences over comforting but false narratives.
Themes
AuthenticityTruthDisillusionmentRealityIllusion
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of pursuing honesty, one could reference this quote to emphasize that a painful truth is more valuable than a comfortable lie.
More from Jean Rhys
All quotes →The musty smell, the bugs, the lonliness, this room, which is part of the street outside-this is all I want from life.
Jean RhysRead
Yes, I am sad, sad as a circus-lioness, sad as an eagle without wings, sad as a violin with only one string and that one broken, sad as a woman who is growing old. Sad, sad, sad.
Jean RhysRead
My life, which seems so simple and monotonous, is really a complicated affair of cafés where they like me and cafés where they don't, streets that are friendly, streets that aren't, rooms where I might be happy, rooms where I shall never be, looking-glasses I look nice in, looking-glasses I don't, dresses that will be lucky, dresses that won't, and so on.
Jean RhysRead
I must write. If I stop writing my life will have been an abject failure. It is that already to other people. But it could be an abject failure to myself. I will not have earned death.
Jean RhysRead
Your red dress,’ she said, and laughed. But I looked at the dress on the floor and it was as if the fire had spread across the room. It was beautiful and it reminded me of something I must do. I will remember I thought. I will remember quite soon now.
Jean RhysRead
Similar quotes
The bells they sound on Bredon, And still the steeples hum. "Come all to church, good people"- Oh, noisy bells, be dumb; I hear you, I will come.
A. E. HousmanRead
I think my cultural work is more important than the adventures I did. The adventures are not important for human beings. It's the conquering of the useless.
Reinhold MessnerRead
We live not, in reality, on the summit of a solid earth but at the bottom of an ocean of air
ThalesRead
All voting is a sort of gaming, like checkers or backgammon, with a slight moral tinge to it, a playing with right and wrong.
Henry David ThoreauRead
Why are we worn out? Why do we, who start out so passionate, brave, noble, believing, become totally bankrupt by the age of thirty or thirty-five? Why is it that one is extinguished by consumption, another puts a bullet in his head, a third seeks oblivion in vodka, cards, a fourth, in order to stifle fear and anguish, cynically tramples underfoot the portrait of his pure, beautiful youth? Why is it that, once fallen, we do not try to rise, and, having lost one thing, we do not seek another? Why?
Anton ChekhovRead
When you step further into the story you came to live, not only does the mythic territory open, but the deep self moves and the world of imagination and meaning comes towards you.
Michael MeadeRead