Everything is complicated; if that were not so, life and poetry and everything else would be a bore.
Wallace StevensRead
We must endure our thoughts all night, until the bright obvious stands motionless in the cold.
Interpretation
What this quote means
We must confront and reflect on our thoughts until clarity emerges.
This quote by Wallace Stevens speaks to the importance of introspection and the need to endure the sometimes uncomfortable process of analyzing our thoughts. It suggests that only through this perseverance, especially during dark or challenging times, can we achieve clarity and understanding, represented by the 'bright obvious' that stands out once the turmoil subsides.
Themes
ThoughtsEnduranceClarityIntrospectionUnderstanding
In practice
Example use cases
A motivational speaker might use this quote to encourage people to embrace their thoughts and challenges during a seminar.
More from Wallace Stevens
All quotes βMost modern reproducers of life, even including the camera, really repudiate it. We gulp down evil, choke at good.
Wallace StevensRead
After one has abandoned a belief in God, poetry is that essence which takes its place as life's redemption.
Wallace StevensRead
Why should she give her bounty to the dead? What is divinity if it can come Only in silent shadows and in dreams?
Wallace StevensRead
LIGHT FROM WITHIN my friend, cancer got you damn it: you had it beat for seven years at least. how did it come back? Why all that pain. again. and you, such a fighter you fought me over and over with tears and words and promises. you fought for me with honesty and a light so bright it hurts my heart. sweet lorna. at peace now finally no more battles, just light from within a flickering candle in the dark burns with you.
Wallace StevensRead
Unfortunately there is nothing more inane than an Easter carol. It is a religious perversion of the activity of Spring in our blood.
Wallace StevensRead
Similar quotes
The person who is truly effective has the humility and reverence to recognize his own perceptual limitations and to appreciate the rich resources available through interaction with the hearts and minds of other human beings.
Stephen CoveyRead
Assertion is not argument; to contradict the statement of an opponent is not proof that you are correct.
Samuel JohnsonRead
When the aerials are down, and your spirit is covered with snows of cynicism and the ice of pessimism, then you are grown old, even at 20, but as long as your aerials are up, to catch waves of optimism, there is hope you may die young at 80.
Samuel UllmanRead
Through indiscriminate suffering men know fear, and fear is the most divine emotion. It is the stones for altars and the beginning of wisdom.
Zora Neale HurstonRead
Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow. It empties today of its strength.
Corrie Ten BoomRead
The new midlife is where you realize that even your failures make you more beautiful and are turned spiritually into success if you became a better person because of them. You became a more humble person. You became a more merciful and compassionate person.
Marianne WilliamsonRead