Quite outside my own self

“I sat there for three hours and did not feel the time or the boredom of our talk and its foolish disconnection. As long as I could hear his voice, I was quite lost, quite blind, quite outside my own self.”
― Anaïs Nin

The possession of knowledge

“The possession of knowledge does not kill the sense of wonder and mystery. There is always more mystery.”  Anaïs Nin

Societies in decline

“Societies in decline have no use for
 visionaries.” - Anaïs Nin

Luxury is not a necessity

“Luxury is not a necessity to me,

 but beautiful and good things are.”

- Anaïs Nin -

The loneliness a woman knows

“Man can never know the loneliness a woman knows. Man lies in
 the woman's womb only to gather strength, he nourishes himself
 from this fusion, and then he rises and goes into the world,
 into his work, into battle, into art. He is not lonely.
 He is busy. The memory of the swim in amniotic fluid gives him 
 energy, completion. Woman may be busy too, but she feels empty.
 Sensuality for her is not only a wave of pleasure in which she
 is bathed, and a charge of electric joy at contact with another.
 When man lies in her womb, she is fulfilled, each act of love a
 taking of man within her, an act of birth and rebirth, of child
 rearing and man bearing. Man lies in her womb and is reborn each
 time anew with a desire to act, to be. But for woman, the climax

 is not in the birth, but in the moment man rests inside of her.” - Anaïs Nin -

The only abnormality

“The only abnormality is the incapacity to love.” - Anaïs Nin

Sometimes we reveal ourselves

“Sometimes we reveal ourselves
 when we are least like ourselves” - Anaïs Nin

Happiness is the absence of fever

“If what Proust says is true,

 that happiness is the absence of fever,

 then I will never know happiness.

 For I am possessed by a fever for knowledge,

 experience, and creation.”

~ Anaïs Nin ~

Life shrinks

“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.”
― Anaïs Nin

Love consists of ...

“Love consists of not looking each other in the eye, but of looking outwardly in the same direction” ― Anaïs Nin

You don't find love

“You don't find love, it finds you. 
  It's got a little bit to do with      destiny,
          fate,         and what's written
                                               in the stars.”
― Anaïs Nin

I am lonely

“I am lonely, yet not everybody will do.
 I don't know why, some people fill the gaps
            and others emphasize my loneliness.
 In reality those who satisfy me are those who
    simply allow me to live with my ''idea of them.”
― Anaïs Nin

Love's greatest killer

“Anxiety is love's greatest killer. It makes others feel as you might when a drowning man holds on to you. You want to save him, but you know he will strangle you with his panic.” ― Anaïs Nin

I must be a mermaid

“I must be a mermaid, Rango. I have no fear of depths and a great fear of shallow living.”
― Anaïs Nin

Dreams are necessary to life

“Dreams are necessary to life.” ― Anaïs Nin

We do not grow absolutely,

“We do not grow absolutely, chronologically.

 We grow sometimes in one dimension,

 and not in another; unevenly.

 We grow partially.

 We are relative.

 We are mature in one realm,

 childish in another.

 The past, present, and future mingle

 and pull us backward, forward,

 or fix us in the present.

 We are made up of layers, cells, constellations.”

― Anaïs Nin

We are like sculptors

“We are like sculptors, constantly carving out of others the image
 we long for, need, love or desire, often against reality, against
 their benefit, and always, in the end, a disappointment, because
 it does not fit them.” ― Anaïs Nin

Life is a process

“Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. 


                         Where people fail
 is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it.
                                   This is a kind of death.” ~ Anaïs Nin

What we call our desitny

“What we call our destiny
          is truly our character and that character can be altered.
    The knowledge that we are responsible for our actions and attitudes
                     does not need to be discouraging, 
             because it also means that we are free to change this destiny.
   
One is not in bondage to the past, 
                    which has shaped our feelings, 
                                                               to race,
                                                                    inheritance, 
                                                                             background.
                     All this can be altered if we have the courage to examine
                                                  how it formed us.
              We can alter the chemistry provided 
                                      we have the courage to dissect the elements.”
― Anaïs Nin

Throw your dreams

“Throw your dreams into space like a kite,

 and you do not know what it will bring back,

 a new life,

 a new friend,

 a new love,

or a new country.”

― Anaïs Nin