46 Perceptive Anaïs Nin Quotes

Last updated on Feb 21st, 2023

46 Perceptive Anaïs Nin Quotes

Anaïs Nin (born February 21, 1903, Neuilly, France – died January 14, 1977, Los Angeles, California, U.S.), in full Angela Anaïs Juana Antolina Rosa Edelmira Nin y Culmell, was a French-born novelist, essayist, and writer of short stories, who gained fame with her journals. Her works are known for their eroticism.

In addition to her journals, Nin also wrote several novels frequently associated with surrealism. Her most notable works include the journals The Diary of Anaïs Nin and Henry and June (1931–1932), the novels D.H. Lawrence: An Unprofessional Study (1932) and Cities of the Interior (1959), and collections of short stories Under a Glass Bell (1944) and Delta of Venus: Erotica (1977).

Until 1966, and the publication of the first volume of her diaries, Anaïs Nin did not win recognition as a significant writer. Today she is considered one of the finest writers of female erotica and a source of inspiration for women worldwide.

1

The truth is something which cannot be told in a few words, and those who simplify the universe only reduce the expansion of its meaning.(April 1932) The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Volume I (1931-1934)

2

The possession of knowledge does not kill the sense of wonder and mystery. There is always more mystery.(November 1932) The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Volume I (1931-1934)

3

Some people read to confirm their own hopelessness. Others read to be rescued from it.'Writing, Music, and Films: On Truth and Reality,' In Favor of the Sensitive Man: And Other Essays (1976)

4

How wrong it is for woman to expect the man to build the world she wants, rather than set out to create it herself.(June 1951) The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Volume V (1947-1955)

We do not see things as they are, we see them as we are. - Anaïs Nin (Seduction of the Minotaur Quotes)
5

We do not see things as they are, we see them as we are.Seduction of the Minotaur (1958)

6

The secret of joy is the mastery of pain.(July 1945) The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Volume IV (1944-1947)

7

Human beings can reach such desperate solitude that they may cross a boundary beyond which words cannot serve, and at such moments there is nothing left for them but to bark.Collages (1964)

8

Anxiety is love’s greatest killer. It creates the failures. It makes others feel as you might when a drowning man holds on to you. You want to save him, but you know he will strangle you with his panic.(February 1947) The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Volume IV (1944-1947)

9

To lie, of course, is to engender insanity.Henry and June: From A Journal of Love. The Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin (1931–1932) (1986)

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage. - Anaïs Nin (The Diary of Anaïs Nin Quotes)
10

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.(June 1941) The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Volume III (1939-1944)

11

Nothing too long imagined can be perfect in a worldly way.Henry and June: From A Journal of Love. The Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin (1931–1932) (1986)

12

We write to taste life twice, in the moment, and in retrospection.(February 1954) The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Volume V (1947-1955)

13

Do not seek the because – in love there is no because, no reason, no explanation, no solutions.Henry and June: From A Journal of Love. The Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin (1931–1932) (1986)

14

We travel, some of us forever, to seek other states, other lives, other souls.(Summer 1969) The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Volume VII (1966-1974)

Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born. - Anaïs Nin (The Diary of Anaïs Nin Quotes)
15

Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.(March 1937) The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Volume II (1934-1939)

16

One handles truths like dynamite.(Fall 1948) The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Volume V (1947-1955)

17

Life is so fluid that one can only hope to capture the living moment, to capture it alive and fresh — not the ordinary moment of an ordinary day but the critical moment of human relationships. How to capture this oscillation within the prison of cold print, without destroying that movement?'Chapter Four: Genesis,' The Novel of the Future (1968)

18

When you make a world tolerable for yourself you make a world tolerable for others.(February 1954) The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Volume V (1947-1955)

19

Experience teaches acceptance of the imperfect as life.(February 15, 1936) Fire: From A Journal of Love: the Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin (1934–1937) (1995)

Throw your dream into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back, a new life, a new friend, a new love, a new country. - Anaïs Nin (The Diary of Anaïs Nin Quotes)
20

Throw your dream into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back, a new life, a new friend, a new love, a new country.(July 1945) The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Volume IV (1944-1947)

21

To withhold from living is to die and that the more you give of yourself to life the more life nourishes you.(March 6, 1936) Fire: From A Journal of Love: the Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin (1934–1937) (1995)

22

When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow.(April 1944) The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Volume IV (1944-1947)

23

People living deeply have no fear of death.(August 1935) The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Volume II (1934-1939)

24

There is a perfection in everything that cannot be owned.'Marcel,' Delta of Venus (1977)

Love never dies of 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, but never a natural death. - Anaïs Nin (The Novel of the Future Quotes)
25

Love never dies of 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, but never a natural death.The Four-Chambered Heart (1950)

26

If I love you it means we share the same fantasies, the same madnesses.(December 30, 1931) The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Volume I (1931-1934)

27

In the world of the dreamer there was solitude: all the exaltations and joys came in the moment of preparation for living. They took place in solitude.'The Cafe,' Children of the Albatross (1947)

28

All those who try to unveil the mysteries always have tragic lives. At the end they are always punished.'The Mohican,' Under a Glass Bell (1944)

29

The truly faithless one is the one who makes love to only a fraction of you. And denies the rest.(February 1932) The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Volume I (1931-1934)

You cannot save people, you can only love them. - Anaïs Nin (The Diary of Anaïs Nin Quotes)
30

You cannot save people, you can only love them.(September 1939) The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Volume II (1934-1939)

31

Art is the method of levitation, in order to separate one’s self from enslavement by the earth.(Spring 1954) The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Volume V (1947-1955)

32

When others asked the truth of me, I was convinced it was not the truth they wanted, but an illusion they could bear to live with.(November 1933) The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Volume I (1931-1934)

33

The monster I kill every day is the monster of realism. The monster who attacks me every day is destruction. Out of the duel comes the transformation. I turn destruction into creation over and over again.(December 21, 1936) Fire: From A Journal of Love: the Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin (1934–1937) (1995)

34

Introspection is a devouring monster. You have to feed it with much material, much experience many people, many places, many loves, many creations, and then it ceases feeding on you.(April 1936) The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Volume II (1934-1939)

The role of the writer is not to say what we can all say but what we are unable to say. - Anaïs Nin (The Diary of Anaïs Nin Quotes)
35

The role of the writer is not to say what we can all say but what we are unable to say.(Summer 1954) The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Volume V (1947-1955)

36

Our life is composed greatly from dreams, from the unconscious, and they must be brought into connection with action. They must be woven together.(January 1945) The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Volume IV (1944-1947)

37

There are many ways to be free. One of them is to transcend reality by imagination.(June 1945) The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Volume IV (1944-1947)

38

If you do not breathe through writing, if you do not cry out in writing, or sing in writing, then don’t write, because our culture has no use for it.'The New Woman,' In Favor of the Sensitive Man: And Other Essays (1976)

39

Creation which cannot express itself becomes madness.(October 18, 1936) Fire: From A Journal of Love: the Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin (1934–1937) (1995)

The enemy of a love is never outside, it’s not a man or woman, it’s what we lack in ourselves. - Anaïs Nin (Cities of the Interior Quotes)
40

The enemy of a love is never outside, it’s not a man or woman, it’s what we lack in ourselves.'A Spy in the House of Love,' Cities of the Interior (1959)

41

Worlds self-made and self-nourished are so full of ghosts and monsters.House of Incest (1936)

42

Each contact with a human being is so rare, so precious, one should preserve it.(January 1933) The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Volume I (1931-1934)

43

There is not one big cosmic meaning for all, there is only the meaning we each give to our life, an individual meaning, an individual plot, like an individual novel, a book for each person.(June 1935) The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Volume II (1934-1939)

44

Music melts all the separate parts of our bodies together.Winter of Artifice (1939)

Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death. - Anaïs Nin (D. H. Lawrence: An Unprofessional Study Quotes)
45

Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death.D. H. Lawrence: An Unprofessional Study (1932)

46

It’s right for a woman to be, above all, human. I am a woman first of all.(June 1933) The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Volume I (1931-1934)