Natalie Clifford Barney Quotes - Page 2

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Books Literature

Tea - that perfume that one drinks, that connecting hyphen.

Natalie Clifford Barney

Tea, Drink, Hyphens

Natalie Clifford Barney (1992). “Adventures of the Mind: The Memoirs of Natalie Clifford Barney”, p.161, NYU Press

12 Copy quote
With renunciation life begins.

Natalie Clifford Barney

Literature, Renunciation

9 Copy quote
At first, when an idea, a poem, or the desire to write takes hold of you, work is a pleasure, a delight, and your enthusiasm knows no bounds. But later on you work with difficulty, doggedly, desperately. For once you have committed yourself to a particular work, inspiration changes its form and becomes an obsession, like a love-affair… which haunts you night and day! Once at grips with a work, we must master it completely before we can recover our idleness.

Natalie Clifford Barney

Inspiration, Writing, Night

14 Copy quote
Seeking revenge: what a lack of foresight.

Natalie Clifford Barney

Revenge, Foresight, Seeking

Natalie Clifford Barney, Anna Livia (1992). “A perilous advantage: the best of Natalie Clifford Barney”, New Victoria Pub

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A good book is never exhausted; we are never exhausted by a good book.

Natalie Clifford Barney

Book, Exhausted, Good Book

Natalie Clifford Barney, Anna Livia (1992). “A Perilous Advantage: The Best of Natalie Clifford Barney”, p.119, New Victoria Publishers

4 Copy quote
Some people make it hard for me to believe in universal evolution.

Natalie Clifford Barney

Believe, People, Evolution

Natalie Clifford Barney, Anna Livia (1992). “A Perilous Advantage: The Best of Natalie Clifford Barney”, p.98, New Victoria Publishers

4 Copy quote
Renouncement: the heroism of mediocrity.

Natalie Clifford Barney

Heroism, Mediocrity, Abstinence

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albinos aren't reproached for having pink eyes and whitish hair, why should they hold it again me for being a lesbian? It's a question of nature: my queerness isn't a vice, isn't 'deliberate,' and harms no one.

Natalie Clifford Barney

Eye, Hair, Vices

13 Copy quote
Most virtue is a demand for greater seduction.

Natalie Clifford Barney

Demand, Seduction, Virtue

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I judge people's charm by the ease with which I express myself in their presence.

Natalie Clifford Barney

People, Judging, Ease

Natalie Clifford Barney, Anna Livia (1992). “A Perilous Advantage: The Best of Natalie Clifford Barney”, p.98, New Victoria Publishers

4 Copy quote
To be one's own master is to be the slave of self.

Natalie Clifford Barney

Self, Slave, Masters

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Eternity - waste of time.

Natalie Clifford Barney

Time, Waste, Wasting Time

7 Copy quote
Would that well-thinking people should be replaced by thinking ones.

Natalie Clifford Barney

Thinking, People, Literature

9 Copy quote
If we keep an open mind, too much is likely to fall into it.

Natalie Clifford Barney

Fall, Thinking, Tolerance

"Samples from Almost Illegible Notebooks". Adam International Review, No. 299, 1962.

8 Copy quote
Time engraves our faces with all the tears we have not shed.

Natalie Clifford Barney

Inspirational, Time, Broken Hearted

"The Amazon of Letters". Book by George Wickes, 1976.

20 Copy quote
It's necessary to use suffering. Otherwise, one is used by it.

Natalie Clifford Barney

Suffering, Use, Used

5 Copy quote
One is not oneself every day-fortunately.

Natalie Clifford Barney

Personality, Oneself

4 Copy quote
Indiscretion has always seemed to me to be one of the privileges of tact.

Natalie Clifford Barney

Privilege, Tact

Natalie Clifford Barney (1992). “Adventures of the Mind: The Memoirs of Natalie Clifford Barney”, p.19, NYU Press

5 Copy quote
All expression, all art, is an indiscretion we commit against ourselves. This is not an 'impoverishment' but an increase in wealth, for it is in this way that we make the short hours of our lives live on beyond themselves.

Natalie Clifford Barney

Art, Expression, Way

Natalie Clifford Barney, Anna Livia (1992). “A Perilous Advantage: The Best of Natalie Clifford Barney”, p.125, New Victoria Publishers

4 Copy quote
If only art were as rare as good taste.

Natalie Clifford Barney

Art, Taste, Good Taste

Natalie Clifford Barney, Anna Livia (1992). “A Perilous Advantage: The Best of Natalie Clifford Barney”, p.126, New Victoria Publishers

4 Copy quote
We are nearly all composed of such a complex mixture of human qualities that in each one of us reside both masculine and feminine principles: what man is without any female attribute and what woman never demonstrates any masculine characteristics?

Natalie Clifford Barney

Men, Masculine And Feminine, Quality

Natalie Clifford Barney, Anna Livia (1992). “A Perilous Advantage: The Best of Natalie Clifford Barney”, p.87, New Victoria Publishers

8 Copy quote
There are. intangible realities which float near us, formless and without words; realities which no one has thought out, and which are excluded for lack of interpreters.

Natalie Clifford Barney

Reality, Literature, Intangible

7 Copy quote
A scholar's heart is a dark well in which are buried many aborted feelings that rise to the surface as arguments.

Natalie Clifford Barney

Learning, Heart, Dark

4 Copy quote
doubt seems the only purity for those who are too fervent to deny, and too lucid to affirm.

Natalie Clifford Barney

Doubt, Purity, Deny

Natalie Clifford Barney (1992). “Adventures of the Mind: The Memoirs of Natalie Clifford Barney”, p.98, NYU Press

4 Copy quote
My only books were women's looks.

Natalie Clifford Barney

Book, Looks

Natalie Clifford Barney, Anna Livia (1992). “A Perilous Advantage: The Best of Natalie Clifford Barney”, p.93, New Victoria Publishers

4 Copy quote

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Born: October 31, 1876
Died: February 2, 1972
Occupation: Playwright
Cite this Page: Citation

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