The truth is how you say it, and to be 'one's self' is the most shocking custom of all.
Interpretation
Being true to oneself can be surprising and challenging in society.
Djuna Barnes highlights the complexities of truth and self-expression. The quote suggests that the way we convey our truth is just as important as the truth itself, and that allowing oneself to be authentic often defies societal norms, leading to both shock and liberation in personal identity.
In practice
In a speech about personal development, to emphasize the importance of authenticity.
Matthew,' she said, 'have you ever loved someone and it became yourself?' For a moment he did not answer. Taking up the decanter he held it to the light. 'Robin can go anywhere, do anything,' Nora continued, 'because she forgets, and I nowhere because I remember.' She came toward him. 'Matthew,' she said, 'you think I have always been like this. Once I was remorseless, but this is another love β it goes everywhere; there is no place for it to stop β it rots me away.
Our bones ache only while the flesh is on them. Stretch it as thin as the temple flesh of an ailing woman and still it serves to ache the bone and to move the bone about; and in like manner the night is a skin pulled over the head of day that the day may be in a torment. We will find no comfort until the night melts away; until the fury of the night rots out its fire.
βGod,β she cried, βwhat is love? Man seeking his own head? The human head, so rented by misery that even the teeth weigh! She couldn't tell me the truth because she had never planned it; her life was a continual accident, and how can you be prepared for that? Everything we can't bear in this world, some day we find in one person, and love it all at once.β
Just as King Midas turned everything to gold, Stalin turned everything to mediocrity.
For the Deist ... prayer is calling across a void to a distant deity. This lofty figure may or may not be listening. He, or it, may or may not be inclined, or even able, to do very much about us and our world, even if he (or it) wanted to ... all you can do is send off a message, like a marooned sailor scribbling a note and putting it in a bottle, on the off-chance that someone out there might pick it up. That kind of prayer takes a good deal of faith and hope. But it isn't Christian prayer.
It is not the creation of wealth that is wrong, but the love of money for its own sake.
The whirligig of time brings in his revenges.
How much can a crown be worth, when a crow can dine upon a king?
It is the hallmark of any deep truth that its negation is also a deep truth.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.