Hoping Quotes (page 165)
We are captivated by the feminine shadow of the self we might have been; in my case by that counterpart of the romantic writer who should have had the courage to reject society and to accept poverty for the sake of the development of his personality. Now when I see such beings I hope that I can somehow be freed from my shortcomings by union with them. Hence the recurrent longing to forsake external reality for a dream and to plunge into a ritual flight...I am attracted by those who...
Cyril Connolly
Old boy," said Grimes, "you're in love."Nonsense!"Smitten?" said Grimes."No, no."The tender passion?"No."Cupid's jolly little darts?"No."Spring fancies, love's young dream?"Nonsense!"Not even a quickening of the pulse?"No."A sweet despair?"Certainly not."A trembling hope?"No."A frisson? a Je ne sais quoi?"Nothing of the sort."Liar!" said Grimes.
Evelyn Waugh
I don’t understand why we must do things in this world, why we must have friends and aspirations, hopes and dreams. Wouldn’t it be better to retreat to a faraway corner of the world, where all its noise and complications would be heard no more? Then we could renounce culture and ambitions; we would lose everything and gain nothing; for what is there to be gained from this world?
Emile M. Cioran
Perceval spends twenty years wandering in the woods, looking for the thing he had found, that was given to him, that seemed so easy, that was not. Later, when things were difficult for me with my work and I felt that I had lost or turned away from something I couldn't even identify, it was the Perceval story that gave me hope. There might be a second chance...in fact, there were more than two chances-many more. I know, after fifty years that the finding/losing, forgetting/remembering,...
Jeanette Winterson