Wild honey smells of freedom The dust - of sunlight The mouth of a young girl, like a violet But gold - smells of nothing.
Anna AkhmatovaRead
Who will grieve for this woman? Does she not seem too insignificant for our concern? Yet in my heart I never will deny her, Who suffered death because she chose to turn.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the overlooked struggles of individuals, emphasizing the significance of personal choice in the face of suffering.
In this quote, Anna Akhmatova addresses the tragic fate of a woman whose pain and sacrifice may go unnoticed by society. It explores themes of individual significance and the moral responsibility of acknowledging the suffering of others, regardless of their perceived importance or status. The speaker expresses a deep, personal connection to the woman's experience, highlighting the intrinsic value of every individual's choices and the consequences that follow.
Themes
SufferingIndividualityChoiceTragedyInsignificance
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about empathy and social responsibility, this quote could emphasize the importance of recognizing individual suffering.
More from Anna Akhmatova
All quotes →And you know, I agree to everything: I will condemn, I will forget, I will give comfort to the enemy, Darkness will be light and sin lovely.
Anna AkhmatovaRead
I myself, from the very beginning, Seemed to myself like someone's dream or delirium Or a reflection in someone else's mirror, Without flesh, without meaning, without a name. Already I knew the list of crimes That I was destined to commit.
Anna AkhmatovaRead
If you were music I would listen to you ceaselessly And my low spirits would brighten up.
Anna AkhmatovaRead
Not, not mine: it's somebody else's wound; I could never have borne it. So take the thing that happened, hide it, stick it in the ground; whisk the lamps away.
Anna AkhmatovaRead
I know beginnings, I know endings too, and life-in-death, and something else I'd rather not recall just now.
Anna AkhmatovaRead
Similar quotes
Countless people pray far more than they know. Often they have such a "stained-glass" image of prayer that they fail to recognize what they are experiencing as prayer and so condemn themselves for not praying.
Richard J. FosterRead
For a man to conquer himself is the first and noblest of all victories.
PlatoRead
A person who is fundamentally honest doesn't need a code of ethics. The Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount are all the ethical code anybody needs.
Harry S. TrumanRead
For a moment he felt a wild hope: perhaps this really was a nightmare. Perhaps he would awake in his own bed, bathed in sweat, shaking, maybe even crying . . . but alive. Safe. Then he pushed the thought away. Its charm was deadly, its comfort fatal.
Stephen KingRead
Unseen University had never admitted women, muttering something about problems with the plumbing, but the real reason was an unspoken dread that if women were allowed to mess around with magic they would probably be embarrassingly good at it.
Terry PratchettRead
In my day, MI6 - which I called the Circus in the books - stank of wartime nostalgia. People were defined by secret cachet: one man did something absolutely extraordinary in Norway; another was the darling of the French Resistance. We didn't even show passes to go in and out of the building.
John Le CarreRead