I am doomed to an eternity of compulsive work. No set goal achieved satisfies. Success only breeds a new goal. The golden apple devoured has seeds. It is endless.
Once the love bug wears off, as it inevitably does, you are shocked to discover that you really didn't know the object of your affections at all. We know this to be so, even as we repeat the same mistake over and over and over.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The initial excitement of love can blind us to the true nature of our partners.
This quote highlights the fleeting nature of romantic infatuation and the tendency for people to overlook the true character of their partners during the early stages of a relationship. Bette Davis points out that the 'love bug' can create an illusion that often fades, revealing a deeper reality that might be disappointing or surprising. It reflects on human behavior in relationships, where the cycle of falling in love and then later realizing the truth about the person is often repeated.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a relationship seminar discussing common pitfalls, this quote can emphasize the importance of understanding one's partner fully.
More from Bette Davis
All quotes →I have been uncompromising, peppery, intractable, monomaniacal, tactless, volatile, and oftentimes disagreeable... I suppose I'm larger than life.
Acting should be bigger than life. Scripts should be bigger than life. It should all be bigger than life.
Today everyone is a star - they're all billed as 'starring' or 'also starring'. In my day, we earned that recognition.
If everybody likes you, you're pretty dull.
You will never be happier than you expect. To change your happiness, change your expectation.
Similar quotes
Be courteous to all, but intimate with few.
What is hardest to accept about the passage of time is that the people who once mattered the most to us wind up in parentheses.
Life cannot be without relationship, but we have made it so agonizing and hideous by basing it on personal and possessive love. Can one love and yet not possess? You will find the true answer not in escape, ideals, beliefs but through the understanding of the causes of dependence and possessiveness.
No one would feel embarrassed about seeking help for a child if they broke their arm - and we really should be equally ready to support a child coping with emotional difficulties.
If you think you’re enlightened go spend a week with your family.
Each person with his or her history of being accepted or rejected, with his or her past history of inner pain and difficulties in relationships, is different. But in each one there is a yearning for communion and belonging, but at the same time a fear of it. Love is what we most want, yet it is what we fear the most.