I, with a deeper instinct, choose a man who compels my strength, who makes enormous demands on me, who does not doubt my courage or my toughness, who does not believe me naive or innocent, who has the courage to treat me like a woman. - Anais Nin
ANAIS NIN
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I spotted this quote yesterday whilst looking for other quotes related to the article that I was writing at the time and it really just smacked me in the face.
Her words felt so incredibly powerful to me!
As ignorant as this may sound, I had never heard of Anais Nin before yesterday and as the quote made such a profound impact on me, I decided to go and take a look at who this woman was, because a quote like that does not just come from nowhere.
Anais Nin was an author who wrote mostly journal style books which depicted her thoughts and experiences in relationships as well as detailing the sexually abusive and incestuous relationship with her father. Now whilst I had no such experience with my father, I have been in two physically abusive relationships and more than a couple of emotionally abusive ones, so it suddenly made complete sense as to why this quote hit me so hard!
This made me even more curious and I went to go see what other quotes she is well known for and I was not at all surprised to discover that there were several and each and every one of them were equally commanding.
Here is a collection of some of her quotes which I found really profound…
“Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don't know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of witherings, of tarnishings.”
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We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are.
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And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
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Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.
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You cannot save people, you can only love them.
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We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.
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Living never wore one out so much as the effort not to live.
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How wrong it is for a woman to expect the man to build the world she wants, rather than to create it herself.
I may not have read any of her books, but it is quite plain to see that she had quite a traumatic life - One which clearly gave “birth” to an exceptionally strong woman and I really admire people who have this kind of inner strength. The kind of strength to continue living with an open heart and mind, despite all the hurts they may have endured and encountered along the way.
Until next time...
Much Love from Cape Town, South Africa xxx
OMG, I LOVE Anaïs Nin! I've done some quotos (my photo + someone's quote = quotos) featuring her, but I'm too lazy to look for them on my hard drive at the moment. However, I did feel up to doing a c&p of this quote that I think you'll appreciate -
"You live like this, sheltered, in a delicate world, and you believe you are living. Then you read a book (Lady Chatterley, for instance), or you take a trip, or you talk with [someone], and you discover that you are not living, that you are hibernating. The symptoms of hibernating are easily detectable: first, restlessness. The second symptom (when hibernating becomes dangerous and might degenerate into death): absence of pleasure. That is all. It appears like an innocuous illness. Monotony, boredom, death. Millions live like this (or die like this) without knowing it. They work in offices. They drive a car. They picnic with their families. They raise children. And then some shock treatment takes place, a person, a book, a song, and it awakens them and saves them from death.
Some never awaken. They are like the people who go to sleep in the snow and never awaken. But I am not in danger because my home, my garden, my beautiful life do not lull me. I am aware of being in a beautiful prison, from which I can only escape by writing." ~ Anaïs Nin
From: https://www.brainpickings.org/2017/01/19/anais-nin-on-reading/
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Oh WOW!!!!!!!!! That literally made the hairs on my arms stand up!! So, SO beautiful and sadly too true!
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Wao! All this are great quotes by Anais nin.
I love this;
Our attitudes towards love is what keeps it growing and stronger.
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Yes, I saw that one too.... She really was so soulful with her words! True brilliance!
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Thank you @hafez - I hope you had a wonderful day too! Glad you enjoyed the quotes.
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Wow! She is strong, tough and independent. She learned a lot and applied her lesson then shared with others to learn too. Impressive. Never read her articles too but i have come across some of her quotes. My favourite topic is love 😁😀😆😆😂😂😂
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Yes, I am very grateful I stumbled across her content... Glad you enjoyed the write up :)
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I always enjoy anything and everything from you.
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Superb quotes, I love them all. There are many cases of incestuous abuses everywhere.. In Austria, a father kept his eldest daughter in a prepared cellar for 2 decades and no one heard nor suspected until she escaped to seek medical help for one of her kids was sick.. she bore 3 teenage kids in that cellar from his abusive father. They didn't see the sun for more than a decade and it came to light everything because of the escape.The father was sentenced for life and the daughter and her kids were moved to a a far away place with new identities.
Who knows how many cases are still undiscovered these days. Sometimes , family members knew about such cases but just keep their mouth shut.
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Oh my HEAVENS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is horrific!!!!!!! Glad the made it out of the situation though... pity however that they will forever walk around with the scars of that.... :(
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You are one strong lady yourself bosslady. 😁🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌.
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Thank you Banana Boy :)
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Welcome. 🍪🍪🍪.
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We should read her books.
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We definitely should :)
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upvote and resteemit done dear...
keep it on..
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Thank you very much for your support, I really appreciate it :)
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The lady Anais Nin seemed like all you have said she is, strong, passionate, and traumatized from early years, and am sorry you had to go through your share of it but also happy you didn't let it crumble you entirely and got back up. I have had my fair share of abuses as a child growing up, I remember the times I would pick up the kitchen knife and try to stab myself to death but I just didn't have enough courage and guts to, I felt the world was no longer worth living and wanted to end it there. Where there is life, there is hope. So in as much as everything around us or everyone around us hurts us, through actions known or unknown to them, as long as there is still life flowing through our blood, we must always see the reason to get back up and instead of feeling like a victim or seeing it as our weakness, we can convert it to our strength and see ourselves as survivors... Like Anais Nin said,
@dee-y over and out.
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Thank you so much for your kind words @dee-y
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hi @jaynie i would love to join steemit blogger
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Hi @horpey Unfortunately our community is currently closed to the public, but we may extend a few invite in the near future :) Stay in touch
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Love the quotes, a wise woman indeed 🙏🏼
Pretty sure I've heard that before, very profound ✌🏼
@sandrastarud very inspirational love 😘
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It would appear that I have only touched the tip of the iceberg in terms of her quotes, she really has some gems!!!
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Her words really hit me. Strong words from a woman who has been through so much.
I think I'll need to find time to read about her.
Thanks for sharing. Have a wonderful Valentine's day
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Wow, grate wrote up. This is very encouraging
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