35 Sylvia Plath Wisdoms That Haven't Aged With The Passing Of Time

“I felt my lungs inflate with the onrush of scenery—air, mountains, trees, people. I thought, this is what it is to be happy.”

— Sylvia Plath, amazon.com

“When you give someone your whole heart and he doesn't want it, you cannot take it back. It's gone forever.”

— Sylvia Plath, amazon.com

“There is nothing like puking with somebody to make you into old friends.”

— Sylvia Plath, amazon.com

“I began to think vodka was my drink at last. It didn’t taste like anything, but it went straight down into my stomach like a sword swallowers’ sword and made me feel powerful and godlike.”

— Sylvia Plath, books.google.com

“I am sad that you are not strong, and do not swim and sail and ski, but you have a strong soul, and I will believe in you and make you invincible on this Earth.”

— Sylvia Plath, books.google.ro

“How I would like to believe in tenderness.”

— Sylvia Plath, emilyspoetryblog.com

“It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York.”

— Sylvia Plath, amazon.com

“I felt very still and empty, the way the eye of a tornado must feel, moving dully along in the middle of the surrounding hullabaloo.”

— Sylvia Plath, amazon.com

“I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart; I am, I am, I am.”

— Sylvia Plath, amazon.com

“I put my hands among the flames. Nothing burns.”

— Sylvia Plath, amazon.com

“I must bridge the gap between adolescent glitter and mature glow.”

— Sylvia Plath, amazon.com

“Aloneness and selfness are too important to betray for company.”

— Sylvia Plath, amazon.com

“Character is fate.”

— Sylvia Plath, amazon.com

“I didn’t want any flowers, I only wanted to lie with my hands turned up and be utterly empty. How free it is, you have no idea how free.”

— Sylvia Plath, amazon.com

“I want to taste and glory in each day, and never be afraid to experience pain; and never shut myself up in a numb core of nonfeeling, or stop questioning and criticizing life and take the easy way out. To learn and think: to think and live; to live and learn: this always, with new insight, new under…”

— Sylvia Plath, amazon.com

“I want to live and feel all the shades, tones and variations of mental and physical experience possible in my life.”

— Sylvia Plath, amazon.com

“Why do we electrocute men for murdering an individual and then pin a purple heart on them for mass slaughter of someone arbitrarily labeled 'enemy?'”

— Sylvia Plath, amazon.com

“So, now I shall talk every night. To myself. To the moon. I shall walk, as I did tonight, jealous of my loneliness, in the blue-silver of the cold moon, shining brilliantly on the drifts of fresh-fallen snow, with the myriad sparkles. I talk to myself and look at the dark trees, blessedly neutral. S…”

— Sylvia Plath, amazon.com

“I too want to be important. By being different. And these girls are all the same.”

— Sylvia Plath, pastemagazine.com

“If they substituted the word 'Lust' for 'Love' in the popular songs it would come nearer the truth.”

— Sylvia Plath, amazon.com

“Perhaps you consider yourself an oracle,Mouthpiece of the dead, or of some god or other.Thirty years now I have laboredTo dredge the silt from your throat.I am none the wiser.”

— Sylvia Plath, poetryfoundation.org

“Clownlike, happiest on your hands, Feet to the stars, and moon-skulled, Gilled like a fish. A common-sense Thumbs-down on the dodo’s mode. Wrapped up in yourself like a spool, Trawling your dark as owls do.”

— Sylvia Plath, poetryfoundation.org

“How we need another soul to cling to, another body to keep us warm. To rest and trust; to give your soul in confidence: I need this, I need someone to pour myself into.”

— Sylvia Plath, amazon.com

“I felt my lungs inflate with the onrush of scenery — air, mountains, trees, people. I thought, 'This is what it is to be happy.'”

— Sylvia Plath, amazon.com

“This is what it is to be complete. It is horrible.”

— Sylvia Plath, amazon.com

“I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead; I lift my lids and all is born again.”

— Sylvia Plath, amazon.com

“Kiss me and you will see how important I am.”

— Sylvia Plath, amazon.com

“I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead; I lift my eyes and all is born again.”

— Sylvia Plath, amazon.com

“Life was not to be sitting in hot amorphic leisure in my backyard idly writing or not-writing, as the spirit moved me. It was instead, running madly, in a crowded schedule, in a squirrel cage of busy people.”

— Sylvia Plath, amazon.com

“There must be quite a few things a hot bath won't cure, but I don't know many of them.”

— Sylvia Plath, amazon.com