Everything is complicated; if that were not so, life and poetry and everything else would be a bore.
Wallace StevensRead
It is never the thing but the version of the thing.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Our perception shapes our understanding of reality, not the reality itself.
This quote by Wallace Stevens suggests that the way we interpret or perceive things is more important than the actual things themselves. It emphasizes the subjective nature of reality, indicating that our individual perspectives define our experiences and truths, rather than an objective world that exists independently of our interpretations.
Themes
PerceptionRealitySubjectivityInterpretation
In practice
Example use cases
In a philosophical discussion about the nature of reality, this quote can illustrate how different perspectives shape our understanding.
More from Wallace Stevens
All quotes βMost modern reproducers of life, even including the camera, really repudiate it. We gulp down evil, choke at good.
Wallace StevensRead
After one has abandoned a belief in God, poetry is that essence which takes its place as life's redemption.
Wallace StevensRead
Why should she give her bounty to the dead? What is divinity if it can come Only in silent shadows and in dreams?
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LIGHT FROM WITHIN my friend, cancer got you damn it: you had it beat for seven years at least. how did it come back? Why all that pain. again. and you, such a fighter you fought me over and over with tears and words and promises. you fought for me with honesty and a light so bright it hurts my heart. sweet lorna. at peace now finally no more battles, just light from within a flickering candle in the dark burns with you.
Wallace StevensRead
Unfortunately there is nothing more inane than an Easter carol. It is a religious perversion of the activity of Spring in our blood.
Wallace StevensRead
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At that point, Noriko finally breaks down and begins to cry sobbing into her hands as the floodgates open - this young woman who has suffered in silence for so long, this good woman who refuse to believe she's good, for only the good doubt their own goodness, which is what makes them good in the first place. The bad know they are good, but the good know nothing. They spend their lives forgiving others, but they can't forgive themselves.
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