The poet is one who is able to keep the fresh vision of the child alive.
Anais NinRead
And silence. She liked the silence most of all. The silence in which the body, senses, the instincts, are more alert, more powerful, more sensitized, live a more richly perfumed and intoxication life, instead of transmuting into thoughts, words, into exquisite abstractions, mathematics of emotion in place of violent impact, the volcanic eruptions of fever, lust and delight.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of silence in enhancing sensory experience and emotional intensity.
Anais Nin reflects on the value of silence as a state that allows a person to be more in tune with their body and instincts, suggesting that in silence, we experience life more vividly and intensely compared to being lost in abstract thoughts and emotions. It highlights the contrast between the richness of direct experience and the dilution of reality through overinterpretation or verbalization.
Themes
SilenceSensesExperienceEmotionIntensity
In practice
Example use cases
During a mindfulness retreat, I shared this quote to illustrate the benefits of quiet reflection.
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We celebrate peace. Yet we pay no attention to the ways of curing aggression in human beings. And when one sees in psychoanalysis hostility disappearing as people conquer their fears, one wonders if the cure is not there.
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The impetus to grow and live intensely is so powerful in me I cannot resist it. I will work, I will love my husband, but I will fulfill myself.
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We have been poisoned by fairy tales.
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But I lie. I embellish. My words are not deep enough. They disguise, they conceal. I will not rest until I have told of my descent into a sensuality which was as dark, as magnificent, as wild, as my moments of mystic creation have been dazzling, ecstatic, exalted.
Anais NinRead
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