I am not good. I am not virtuous. I am not sympathetic. I am not generous. I am merely and above all a creature of intense passionate feeling. I feel—everything. It is my genius. It burns me like fire.
Interpretation
The speaker acknowledges their emotional intensity over traditional virtues.
In this quote, Mary MacLane emphasizes that her essence is rooted in deep emotional experiences rather than conventional qualities such as goodness or generosity. She suggests that her passionate feelings are her true strength and worth, portraying a view of authenticity that values emotional depth over moral categories.
In practice
During a motivational speaking event, one might use this quote to discuss the importance of embracing one's emotions.
I do not know if you remember the tale of the girl who saves the ship under mutiny by sitting on the powder barrel with her lighted torch... and all the time knowing that it is empty? This has seemed to me a charming image of the women of my time. There they were, keeping the world in order... by sitting on the mystery of life, and knowing themselves that there was no mystery.
Under observation, we act less free, which means we effectively are less free.
You would be very ashamed if you knew what the experiences you call setbacks, upheavals, pointless disturbances, and tedious annoyances really are. You would realize that your complaints about them are nothing more nor less than blasphemies - though that never occurs to you. Nothing happens to you except by the will of God, and yet [God's] beloved children curse it because they do not know it for what it is.
[In the aftermath of death] Small talk feels too small, big talk too enormous.
I don't think you ever understand your life - not till it's finished and probably not then either. The more I live the less I seem to understand.
No one really knows why they are alive until they know what they'd die for.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.