I asked her to look at me and after a few moments - (pause) - after a few moments she did, but the eyes just slits, because of the glare I bent over her to get them in the shadow and they opened. (Pause. Low) Let me in.
Samuel BeckettRead
And all these questions I ask myself. It is not in a spirit of curiosity. I cannot be silent. About myself I need know nothing. Here all is clear. No, all is not clear. But the discourse must go on. So one invents obscurities. Rhetoric.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects the struggle of self-understanding and the complexities of communication.
In this quote, Samuel Beckett delves into the nature of introspection and the human experience of grappling with uncertainty. He expresses a paradox where the desire for self-knowledge clashes with the realization that clarity is elusive. The 'discourse' he alludes to represents the ceaseless effort to communicate and comprehend one's thoughts and emotions, even when they are shrouded in ambiguity and rhetorical embellishments.
Themes
Self-ExaminationUncertaintyCommunicationIntrospectionRhetoric
In practice
Example use cases
In a philosophy class discussing the nature of existence.
More from Samuel Beckett
All quotes →Nothing happens. Nobody comes, nobody goes. It's awful.
Samuel BeckettRead
I shall state silences more competently than ever a better man spangled the butterflies of vertigo.
Samuel BeckettRead
And what I have, what I am, is enough, was always enough for me, and as far as my dear little sweet little future is concerned I have no qualms, I have a good time coming.
Samuel BeckettRead
I love order. It's my dream. A world where all would be silent and still, and each thing in its last place, under the last dust.
Samuel BeckettRead
We lose our hair, our teeth! Our bloom, our ideals.
Samuel BeckettRead
Similar quotes
Every woman knows that, regardless of all her other achievements, she is a failure if she is not beautiful.
Germaine GreerRead
Was it Aristotle who said the human soul is composed of reason, will, and desire?” “No, that was Plato. Aristotle and Plato were as different as Mel Tormé and Bing Crosby. In any case, things were a lot simpler in the old days,” Komatsu said. “Wouldn’t it be fun to imagine reason, will, and desire engaged in a fierce debate around a table?
Haruki MurakamiRead
When men, engaged in unjustifiable pursuits, are aware that obstructions may come from a quarter which bare apprehension of opposition from doing what they would with eagerness rush into if no such external impediments were to be feared.
Alexander HamiltonRead
We worry a great deal about the problem of church and state. Now what about the church and God? Sometimes there seems to be a greater separation between the church and God than between the church and state.
Abraham Joshua HeschelRead
What is the ideal for mental health, then? A lived, compelling illusion that does not lie about life, death, and reality; one honest enough to follow its own commandments: I mean, not to kill, not to take the lives of others to justify itself.
Ernest BeckerRead
I don't think I had even begun to have an idea where I was going, but wherever it was, that was where I wanted to go.
Wendell BerryRead