#lit

In her view, there were three options for a woman. If you were beautiful, you got married. If you were ugly, you became a nun. If you were beautiful and stupid, or ugly and dishonorable, you became a whore. ↗

— Nenia Campbell

#feminism #sexuality #beauty

It was a privileged existence, but also a cage, beautifully decorated, but locked tight always. ↗

— Amber Newberry

#gothic-romance #beauty

It is untrue that fiction is nonutilitarian. The uses of fiction are synonymous with the uses of literature. They include refreshment, clarification of life, self-awareness, expansion of our range of experiences, and enlargement of our sense of understanding and discovery, perception, intensification, expression, beauty , and understanding. Like literature generally, fiction is a form of discovery, perception, intensification, expression, beauty, and understanding. If it is all these things, the question of whether it is a legitimate use of time should not even arise. ↗

— Leland Ryken

#classics #fiction #literature #novels #on-fiction

the only unfailing guide I’ve ever found through the innumerable blind alleys of my life as a writer, man, husband, father, citizen, steward, or believer, is the love burning in my heart. for me, prayer is about one thing: making contact with that love. though it burns in there like a candle flame, hot, bright, beautiful, love’s flame is so fragile… keeping one’s love burning, and living in accord with that burning: this, to me, is prayer. ↗

— David James Duncan

#prayer #religion #spirituality #beauty

The sky's gray and there's mizzle. It's so soft on my skin--it's nothing like rain. It's even softer than the lightest drizzle! Lift my face up, so it can kiss my skin." The Panopticon ↗

— Jenn Fagan

#landscape #vulnerability #weather #beauty

Clinical psychology tells us arguably that trauma is the ultimate killer.Memories r not recycled like atoms and particles in quantum physics. they can be lost forever. It’s sort of like my past is an unfinished painting and as the artist of that painting,I must fill in all the ugly holes and make it beautiful again. ↗

— Lady Gaga

#reality #beauty

The critic's aim should be to interpret the work they are writing about and help readers appreciate it, by defining and analysing those qualities that make it precious and by indicating the angle of visions from which its beauties are visible. But many critics do not realize their function. They aim not to appreciate, but to judge; they seek first to draw lines about literature and then bully readers into accepting these laws. ↗

— David Cecil

#literary-criticism #beauty

In the twilight of a silent coast, under the beautiful stars, immortality visits you! ↗

— Mehmet Murat ildan

#beauty

Words are a puzzle; put them together the right way and you get something beautiful. ↗

— Amy Joy

#wordsmithing #writing #beauty

Whole life is a search for beauty. But, when the beauty is found inside, the search ends and a beautiful journey begins. ↗

— Harshit Walia

#indian-fiction #inner-beauty #journey #life #philosophical