Jump off. You are a protected individual. Do not fear.
I saw through to the last sign and symbol, but I could not read her face. I could see only the eyes shining through, huge, fleshy-like luminous beasts, as though I were swimming behind them in the electric effluvia of her incandescent vision.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects the deep, often ineffable connection one can have with another person, emphasizing the difficulty of fully understanding someone's emotions.
In this quote, Henry Miller captures the complexity of intimate relationships, illustrating how one can perceive deep feelings and emotions through visual experiences yet still struggle to grasp the complete essence of the other person. The vivid imagery of swimming through 'luminous beasts' suggests an overwhelming sensation of connection, akin to being enveloped in another's emotional aura, yet the inability to fully interpret their inner world leaves a lingering distance despite the apparent closeness.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
Using this quote in a speech about the complexity of love.
More from Henry Miller
All quotes →The essential thing is to WANT to sing. This then is a song. I am singing.
Great God! What have I turned into? What right have you people to clutter up my life, steal my time, probe my soul, suckle my thoughts, have me for your companion, confidant, and information bureau? What do you take me for? Am I an entertainer on salary, required every evening to play an intellectual farce under your stupid noses? Am I a slave, bought and paid for, to crawl on my belly in front of you idlers and lay at your feet all that I do and all that I know?
We are swimming on the face of time and all else has drowned, is drowning, or will drown.
To sing you must first open your mouth. You must have a pair of lungs, and a little knowledge of music. It is not necessary to have an accordion, or a guitar. The essential thing is to want to sing. This then is a song. I am singing.
What are our conductors giving us year after year? Only fresh corpses. Over these beautifully embalmed sonatas, toccatas, symphonies and operas the public dance the jitterbug. Night and day without let the radio drowns us in a hog-wash of the most nauseating, sentimental ditties. From the churches comes the melancholy dirge of the dead Christ, a music which is no more sacred than a rotten turnip.
Similar quotes
God is to be worshiped as the one Beloved, dearer than everything in this and the next life.
He lifted me up and held me close against him, my head on his shoulder. At that moment I loved him. In the morning light he was as golden, as soft, as gentle as myself, and he would protect me.
I happen to be colorblind. Racism is not my motto. One day, I strongly expect every color to love as one family.
If you want to fall in love, you can't hold everything in. You have to open up, take that risk. You'll be hurt sometimes, but if you don't, you'll never be happy. The one you find may not be the kind of woman you expected to fall in love with, but it wont matter, you'll love her for exactly what she is.
The true liberation of eroticism lies in accepting the fact that there are a million facets to it, a million forms of eroticism, a million objects of it, situations, atmospheres, and variations. We have, first of all, to dispense with guilt concerning its expansion, then remain open to it's surprises, varied expressions, and mingle it with dreams, fantasies, and emotion for it to attain its highest potency.
She says I am not fair, that I lack manners;_x000D_ _x000D_ She calls me proud, and that she could not love me,_x000D_ _x000D_ Were man as rare as Phoenix.