Unbearable Quotations | Page 2

Metaphors are dangerous. Metaphors are not to be trifled with.

A single metaphor can give birth to love.

She had an overwhelming desire to tell him, like the most banal of women. Don't let me go, hold me tight, make me your plaything, your slave, be strong! But they were words she could not say. The only thing she said when he released her from his embrace was, "You don't know how happy I am to be with you." That was the most her reserved nature allowed her to express.

True human goodness, in all its purity and freedom, can come to the fore only when its recipient has no power.

And what can life be worth if the first rehearsal for life is life itself?

Why don't you ever use your strength on me?" she said. Because love means renouncing strength," said Franz softly.

Perhaps all the questions we ask of love, to measure, test, probe, and save it, have the additional effect of cutting it short.

Kitsch excludes everything from its purview which is essentially unacceptable in human existence

Metaphors are dangerous. Love begins with a metaphor

There are things that can be accomplished only by violence. Physical love is unthinkable without violence.