If I was bound for hell, let it be hell. No more false heaven. No more damned magic.
Jean RhysRead
You imagine the carefully pruned, shaped thing that is presented to you is truth. That is just what it isn't. The truth is improbable, the truth is fantastic; it's in what you think is a distorting mirror that you see the truth.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Truth is often obscured by expectations and perceptions, which can distort reality.
In this quote, Jean Rhys highlights the idea that what we perceive as truth is frequently shaped by our preconceived notions and societal norms, which can act like a distorting mirror. The real truth, in its raw and unrefined form, may be surprising or fantastical and exists beyond the carefully curated versions we are presented with.
Themes
TruthPerceptionDistortionRealityImprobable
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used to spark discussions in philosophy classes about the nature of truth.
More from Jean Rhys
All quotes →The musty smell, the bugs, the lonliness, this room, which is part of the street outside-this is all I want from life.
Jean RhysRead
Yes, I am sad, sad as a circus-lioness, sad as an eagle without wings, sad as a violin with only one string and that one broken, sad as a woman who is growing old. Sad, sad, sad.
Jean RhysRead
My life, which seems so simple and monotonous, is really a complicated affair of cafés where they like me and cafés where they don't, streets that are friendly, streets that aren't, rooms where I might be happy, rooms where I shall never be, looking-glasses I look nice in, looking-glasses I don't, dresses that will be lucky, dresses that won't, and so on.
Jean RhysRead
I must write. If I stop writing my life will have been an abject failure. It is that already to other people. But it could be an abject failure to myself. I will not have earned death.
Jean RhysRead
Your red dress,’ she said, and laughed. But I looked at the dress on the floor and it was as if the fire had spread across the room. It was beautiful and it reminded me of something I must do. I will remember I thought. I will remember quite soon now.
Jean RhysRead
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