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
I'm not black, but there's a whole lot of times I wish I could say I'm not white.
One could only damage oneself through the harm one did to others. One could never get directly at oneself.
We must assist the British in the war as if there were no White Paper and we must resist the White Paper as if there were no war.
Although a biologist, I must confess I do not understand how life came about... I consider that life only starts at the level of a functional cell. The most primitive cells may require at least several hundred different specific biological macro-molecules. How such already quite complex structures may have come together, remains a mystery to me. The possibility of the existence of a Creator, of God, represents to me a satisfactory solution to this problem.
Poverty does not make people terrorists, but terrorists can exploit the frustration it creates and use it as a breeding-ground for violent ideas.
Believe me, when I say; There are no two powers That command the soul. One is God The other is the tide. -Anon From the novel Abarat
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