QuoteProject
A man who wants to mutilate himself is certainly damned, isn't he?
Arthur Rimbaud
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote reflects on self-harm and the complex nature of human desire and suffering.

Arthur Rimbaud's quote provokes a deep contemplation about the human condition and the darker aspects of desire. It suggests that a person who harbors thoughts of self-mutilation is facing profound internal conflict and despair, leading to a sense of inevitable ruin or moral damnation. Rimbaud's framing of this desire as 'damned' underlines the severity and potential tragic consequences of such self-destructive behavior.

Themes

Self-HarmDespairHuman ConditionDesireInternal Conflict

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be shared in a mental health awareness seminar to discuss the nature of self-harm.

More from Arthur Rimbaud

And from that time on I bathed in the Poem Of the Sea, star-infused and churned into milk, Devouring the green azures; where, entranced in pallid flotsam, A dreaming drowned man sometimes goes down.
Arthur RimbaudRead
My wisdom is as spurned as chaos. What is my nothingness, compared to the amazement that awaits you?
Arthur RimbaudRead
In the great glasshouses streaming with condensation, the children in mourning-dress beheld marvels.
Arthur RimbaudRead
I turned silences and nights into words. What was unutterable, I wrote down. I made the whirling world stand still.
Arthur RimbaudRead
Idle youth, enslaved to everything; by being too sensitive I have wasted my life.
Arthur RimbaudRead
What a life! True life is elsewhere. We are not in the world.
Arthur RimbaudRead

Similar quotes

It is apparent that nothing short of contraceptives can put an end to the horrors of abortion and infanticide.
Margaret SangerRead
Democracies are indeed slow to make war, but once embarked upon a martial venture are equally slow to make peace and reluctant to make a tolerable, rather than a vindictive, peace.
Reinhold NiebuhrRead
In contrast to the institutions of the world, which teach us to KNOW something, the gospel of Jesus Christ challenges us to BECOME something...The gospel of Jesus Christ is the plan by which we can become what children of god are supposed to become...Charity is something one becomes.
Dallin H. OaksRead
So the America I loved still exists, if not in the White House or the Supreme Court or the Senate or the House of Representatives or the media. The America I love still exists at the front desks of our public libraries.
Kurt VonnegutRead
Basically, it's hard for me to assess myself, a hardship not only prompted by the immodesty of the enterprise, but because one is not capable of assessing himself, let alone his work. However, if I were to summarize, my main interest is the nature of time. That's what interests me most of all. What time can do to a man.
Joseph BrodskyRead
Americans have a severe disease - worse than AIDS. It's called the winner's complex.
Mikhail GorbachevRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.