The poet is one who is able to keep the fresh vision of the child alive.
Anais NinRead
I have seen romanticism outlast the realistic. I have seen men forget the beautiful women they have possessed, forget the prostitutes, and remember the first woman they idolized, the woman they could never have. The woman who aroused them romantically holds them.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on the lasting impact of idealized love over physical relationships.
Anais Nin explores the theme of romanticism versus realism in relationships, suggesting that while men may move on from physical and superficial connections, they often retain a profound admiration for the unattainable ideal. This idealization of past loves emphasizes the power of longing and the emotional resonance of that first, often impossible, love that stays with someone far longer than fleeting romantic encounters.
Themes
RomanticismLoveIdealizationRelationshipsMemory
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a wedding speech to highlight the timeless nature of true love.
More from Anais Nin
All quotes →Anxiety is love's greatest killer, because it is like the stranglehold of the drowning.
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We celebrate peace. Yet we pay no attention to the ways of curing aggression in human beings. And when one sees in psychoanalysis hostility disappearing as people conquer their fears, one wonders if the cure is not there.
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The impetus to grow and live intensely is so powerful in me I cannot resist it. I will work, I will love my husband, but I will fulfill myself.
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We have been poisoned by fairy tales.
Anais NinRead
But I lie. I embellish. My words are not deep enough. They disguise, they conceal. I will not rest until I have told of my descent into a sensuality which was as dark, as magnificent, as wild, as my moments of mystic creation have been dazzling, ecstatic, exalted.
Anais NinRead
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