Sylvia Plath was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer. She is best known for her semi-autobiographical novel The Bell Jar, and for her posthumously published collection of poetry, Ariel. A central theme in Plath’s work is the tension between conformity and rebellion, which often reflects her own struggles with mental illness and her search for identity.
Plath’s words remain an inspiration to readers around the world, as they explore love, loss, longing, and identity. Sylvia Plath is a reminder that our thoughts can be powerful and transformative. Her words can influence us to live life more fully and authentically. Sylvia Plath is a reminder that it’s never too late to find our voice, and express our true selves.
Sylvia Plath Quotes
In this post I share with you some of Sylvia Plath’s most inspiring words and quotes. I hope you will enjoy them as much as I do.
1. “I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart. I am, I am, I am.”― Sylvia Plath
2. “I like people too much or not at all. I’ve got to go down deep, to fall into people, to really know them.” ― Sylvia Plath
3. “I write only because
There is a voice within me
That will not be still” ― Sylvia Plath
4. “I am gone quite mad with the knowledge of accepting the overwhelming number of things I can never know, places I can never go, and people I can never be.” – Sylvia Plath
5. “I have room in me for love. And for ever so many little lives.” – Sylvia Plath
6. “I felt my lungs inflate with the onrush of scenery—air, mountains, trees, people. I thought, “This is what it is to be happy.” ― Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar
7. “What I fear most, I think, is the death of imagination. When the sky outside is merely pink, and the rooftops merely black: that photographic mind which paradoxically tells the truth, but the worthless truth, about the world.” – Sylvia Plath
8. “Of course, I didn’t believe in life after death or the virgin birth or the Inquisition or the infallibility of that little monkey-faced Pope or anything, but I didn’t have to let the priest see this, I could just concentrate on my sin, and he would help me repent.” – Sylvia Plath
9. “I hadn’t, at the last moment, felt like washing off the two diagonal lines of dried blood that marked my cheeks. They seemed touching, and rather spectacular, and I thought I would carry them around with me, like the relic of a dead lover, till they wore off of their own accord.” – Sylvia Plath
10. “My mother said the cure for thinking too much about yourself was helping somebody who was worse off than you.” – Sylvia Plath
11. “I can never read all the books I want; I can never be all the people I want and live all the lives I want. I can never train myself in all the skills I want. And why do I want? I want to live and feel all the shades, tones and variations of mental and physical experience possible in my life. And I am horribly limited.”,― Sylvia Plath
12. “Dying
Is an art, like everything else.
I do it exceptionally well.
I do it so it feels like hell.
I do it so it feels real.
I guess you could say I have a call.”― Sylvia Plath
13. “Is there no way out of the mind?”― Sylvia Plath
14. “Perhaps when we find ourselves wanting everything, it is because we are dangerously close to wanting nothing.” ― sylvia plath
15. “I have always been extremely fond of the definition of Death which says it is: Inaccessibility to Experience.” – Sylvia Plath
16. “There I went again, building up a glamorous picture of a man who would love me passionately the minute he met me, and all out of a few prosy nothings.”– Sylvia Plath
17. “I didn’t know why I was going to cry, but I knew that if anybody spoke to me or looked at me too closely the tears would fly out of my eyes and the sobs would fly out of my throat and I’d cry for a week. I could feel the tears brimming and sloshing in me like water in a glass that is unsteady and too full.” – Sylvia Plath
18. “I am, to be blunt and concise, in love only with myself, my puny being with its small inadequate breasts and meager, thin talents. I am capable of affection for those who reflect my own world.” – Sylvia Plath
19. “I wonder why I don’t go to bed and go to sleep. But then it would be tomorrow, so I decide that no matter how tired, no matter how incoherent I am, I can skip one hour more of sleep and live.” – Sylvia Plath, The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath
20. “Here I am, a bundle of past recollections and future dreams, knotted up in a reasonably attractive bundle of flesh. I remember what this flesh has gone through; I dream of what it may go through.” – Sylvia Plath
21. “If you expect nothing from somebody you are never disappointed.”― Sylvia Plath
22. “I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead. I lift my eyes and all is born again.” ― Sylvia Plath
Related: Best Carl Sagan Quotes
Final thoughts
Sylvia Plath’s oeuvre serves as a poignant reflection of her turbulent life, brimming with raw emotion and unapologetic honesty. Her words, a blend of personal pain and universal truths, continue to resonate with readers, offering solace and understanding in the midst of despair. Plath’s work transcends the boundary of time, speaking to the eternal human condition with an intensity that few others have managed to capture. Through her exploration of themes such as identity, loss, and the quest for meaning amidst chaos, she has left an indelible mark on literature and on the hearts of those who find themselves in her verses.
