Narcissus Quotes

• Narcissus does not fall in love with his reflection because it is beautiful, but because it is his. If it were his beauty that enthralled him, he would be set free in a few years by its fading.

  W. H. Auden

  Love, Beautiful, Fall

  60 Copy quote

• The lake was silent for some time. Finally, it said: "I weep for Narcissus, but I never noticed that Narcissus was beautiful. I weep because, each time he knelt beside my banks, I could see, in the depths of his eyes, my own beauty reflected.

  Paulo Coelho

  Beautiful, Eye, Lakes

  Paulo Coelho (1998). “The Alchemist - 10th Anniversary Edition”, HarperSanFrancisco

  69 Copy quote

  Show source

• Narcissus weeps to find that his Image does not return his love.

  Mason Cooley

  Doe, His Love, Return

  37 Copy quote

• They can romanticize us so, mirrors, and that is their secret: what a subtle torture it would be to destroy all the mirrors in the world: where then could we look for reassurance of our identities?

  Truman Capote

  Mirrors, Secret, Identity

  Truman Capote (1955). “Other voices, other rooms”, Modern Library

  32 Copy quote

  Show source

• In my garden
  the winds have beaten
  the ripe lilies;
  in my garden, the salt
  has wilted the first flakes
  of young narcissus.

  Hilda Doolittle

  Loss, Garden, Wind

  Hilda Doolittle (1988). “Selected Poems”, p.45, New Directions Publishing

  31 Copy quote

  Show source

• That was one of the problems with the Narcissus figure. Here is a face looking at a face, and the problem is the image of the thing is never actually the thing. You try and grab it and it's not there. It's water. It disappears.

  Jane Alison

  Water, Trying, Faces

  Source: therumpus.net

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• Narcissus never wrote well nor was a friend.

  Edward Dahlberg

  Wells

  Edward Dahlberg (1965). “Reasons of the heart”

  15 Copy quote

  Show source

• Narcissism and Christianity have little in common, yet the Romantic paradigm of artistic creativity, particularly in light of subsequent Freudian ideas, has tended to foster its share of narcissism. It was the tragic fate of Narcissus that he was so preoccupied with self that he could not appreciate God, nature, or the other.

  John Walford

  Creativity, Fate, Light

  24 Copy quote

• our friendship has no other purpose, no other reason, than to show you how utterly unlike me you are.

  Hermann Hesse

  Purpose, Reason, Shows

  17 Copy quote

• Narcissus is the glory of his race: For who does nothing with a better grace?.

  Edward Young

  Race, Doe, Glory

  'Love of Fame: The Universal Passion' (1725-8) Satire 4, l. 86

  19 Copy quote

  Show source

• He who has two cakes of bread, let him dispose of one of them for some flowers of the narcissus; for bread is the food of the body, and the narcissus is the food of the soul.

  Galen

  Flower, Cake, Two

  "Arabian Society In The Middle Ages". Book by by Edward William Lane, 1883.

  29 Copy quote

  Show source

• I brought a mirror to Lovers' Lane. I told everybody I'm Narcissus.

  Steven Wright

  Funny, Humor, Mirrors

  13 Copy quote

• It is not our purpose to become each other; it is to recognize each other, to learn to see the other and honor him for what he is: each the other's opposite and complement.

  Hermann Hesse

  Motivational, Respect, Honor

  "Narcissus and Goldmund". Book by Hermann Hesse, 1930.

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• Her lips are roses over-washed with dew, Or like the purple of Narcissus' flower; No frost their fair, no wind doth waste their power, But by her breath her beauties to renew.

  Robert Greene

  Flower, Wind, Purple

  Robert Greene, Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson (188?). “The poems of Robert Greene, Christopher Marlowe, and Ben Johnson”

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Our squalid society rushed, Narcissus to a man, to gaze on its trivial image on a scrap of metal.

  Charles Baudelaire

  Men, Metals, Scrap

  Charles Baudelaire, Jonathan Mayne (1981). “Art in Paris 1845-1862: salons and other exhibitions”

  18 Copy quote

  Show source

• They can romanticize us so, mirrors, and that is their secret: what a subtle torture it would be to destroy all the mirrors in the world: where then could we look for reassurerance of our identities? I tell you, my dear, Narcissus was so egotist...he was merely another of us who, in our unshatterable isolation, recognized, on seeing his reflection, the beautiful comrade, the only inseparatable love...poor Narcissus, possibly the only human who was ever honest on this point.

  Truman Capote

  Beautiful, Reflection, Mirrors

  15 Copy quote

• Why did the old Persians hold the sea holy? Why did the Greeks give it a separate deity, and own brother Jove? Surely all this is not without meaning. And still deeper the meaning of that story of Narcissus, who because he could not grasp the tormenting mild image he saw in the fountain, plunged into it and was drowned. But that same image, we ourselves see in all rivers and oceans. It is the image of the ungraspable phantom of life; and this is the key to it all.

  Herman Melville

  Brother, Ocean, Keys

  Herman Melville (1892). “Moby Dick”, p.9

  48 Copy quote

  Show source

• If one finds oneself with bread in both hands, that person should exchange one loaf for some flowers of the narcissus, because the loaf feeds the body, but the flowers feed the soul.

  Nazr Mohammed

  Flower, Hands, Soul

  9 Copy quote

• What are you talking about?" Narcissus demanded. "I am amazing. Everyone knows this." "Amazing at pure suck," Leo said. "If I was as suck as you, I'd drown myself. Oh wait, you already did that.

  Rick Riordan

  Talking, Waiting, Said

  10 Copy quote

• Leaders of the Church have often been Narcissus, flattered and sickeningly excited by their courtiers. The court is the leprosy of the papacy.

  Pope Francis

  Leader, Church, Leprosy

  11 Copy quote

• You cannot hammer a girl into anything. She grows as a flower does, she will wither without sun; she will decay in her sheath as a narcissus will if you do not give her air enough; she might fall and defile her head in dust if you leave her without help at some moments in her life; but you cannot fetter her; she must take her own fair form and way if she take any.

  John Ruskin

  Girl, Flower, Fall

  John Ruskin (1894). “Essays and Letters Selected from the Writings of John Ruskin”

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• I read somewhere once that souls were like flowers,' said Priscilla. 'Then your soul is a golden narcissus,' said Anne, 'and Diana's is like a red, red rose. Jane's is an apple blossom, pink and wholesome and sweet.' 'And our own is a white violet, with purple streaks in its heart,' finished Priscilla.

  Lucy Maud Montgomery

  Sweet, Flower, Heart

  15 Copy quote

• Ingratitude' is the name which avatars of Narcissus give to the success of others.

  Jean Lorrain

  Names, Giving, Success Of Others

  Jean Lorrain (1994). “Monsieur de Phocas”, Hippocrene Books

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Leo took out a pen and autographed the arm of one of the nymphs. “Narcissus is a loser! He’s so weak, he can’t bench-press a Kleenex. He’s so lame, when you look up lame on Wikipedia, it’s got a picture of Narcissus—only the picture’s so ugly, no one ever checks it out.

  Rick Riordan

  Nymphs, Ugly, Arms

  37 Copy quote

• I wonder if the course of narcissism through the ages would have been any different had Narcissus first peered into a cesspool. He probably did.

  Frank O'Hara

  Age, Different, Firsts

  Frank O'Hara (1977). “Early writing”, Bookpeople

  7 Copy quote

  Show source