--- title: "10 Ifs Quotes By Robert Bly" description: "10 Ifs quotes by Robert Bly. Plus more from Robert Bly and more Ifs sayings from other authors." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/71f/robert-bly-3269_adulthood_the-models-of-adulthood-are-disappearing_304997.png" --- > [The models of adulthood are disappearing fast. How can two people have a new marriage if neither of them is an adult?](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bly/the-models-of-adulthood-are-disappearing-fast-how-can-two-people-have/) [Robert Bly](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bly/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/71f/robert-bly-3269_adulthood_the-models-of-adulthood-are-disappearing_304997.png) > [If we call the young ones, say 10 to 30 years old, 'siblings,' we can see they tend to be naturally ecological.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bly/if-we-call-the-young-ones-say-10-to-30-years-old-siblings-we-can-see/) [Robert Bly](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bly/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9c0/robert-bly-3269_ecological_if-we-call-the-young-ones-say-10-to-30-y_1375176.png) > [If a man, cautious, hides his limp, Somebody has to limp it! Things do it; the surroundings limp. House walls get scars,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bly/if-a-man-cautious-hides-his-limp-somebody-has-to-limp-it-things-do-it/) [Robert Bly](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bly/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bb2/robert-bly-3269_break_if-a-man-cautious-hides-his-limp-somebod_774540.png) > [If you want the truth, I will tell you the truth: Friend, listen: the God whom I love is inside.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bly/if-you-want-the-truth-i-will-tell-you-the-truth-friend-listen-the-god/) [Robert Bly](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bly/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/82b/robert-bly-3269_being-a-mom_if-you-want-the-truth-i-will-tell-you-th_2355129.png) > [If you want to know what it will be like when we are more deeply into the horizontal, simply go to one…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bly/if-you-want-to-know-what-it-will-be-like-when-we-are-more-deeply-into/) [Robert Bly](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bly/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/530/robert-bly-3269_casinos_if-you-want-to-know-what-it-will-be-like_2794017.png) > [I saw Sophia Loren - the Italian woman with those wonderful cheekbones - in a movie the other day. She must have…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bly/i-saw-sophia-loren-the-italian-woman-with-those-wonderful-cheekbones/) [Robert Bly](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bly/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/add/robert-bly-3269_aliens_i-saw-sophia-loren-the-italian-woman-wit_887947.png) > [To me, the hope lies in adults forgetting about their retirement and turning toward the adolescents and helping pull the adolescents over…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bly/to-me-the-hope-lies-in-adults-forgetting-about-their-retirement-and/) [Robert Bly](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bly/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6a7/robert-bly-3269_adulthood_to-me-the-hope-lies-in-adults-forgetting_1015507.png) > [Adolescents believe that the world belongs to the living, or more particularly to living people their age, so they feel within their…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bly/adolescents-believe-that-the-world-belongs-to-the-living-or-more/) [Robert Bly](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bly/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/21d/robert-bly-3269_adolescents_adolescents-believe-that-the-world-belon_2205871.png) > [One day while studying a Yeats poem I decided to write poetry the rest of my life. I recognized that a single…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bly/one-day-while-studying-a-yeats-poem-i-decided-to-write-poetry-the/) [Robert Bly](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bly/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a52/robert-bly-3269_airy_one-day-while-studying-a-yeats-poem-i-de_3115398.jpg) > [All of those on the left, as I am, have always vastly preferred the democratic society over the hierarchical society and still…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bly/all-of-those-on-the-left-as-i-am-have-always-vastly-preferred-the/) [Robert Bly](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bly/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/801/robert-bly-3269_capable_all-of-those-on-the-left-as-i-am-have-al_1233456.jpg) ## Other authors on Ifs ## More by Robert Bly > [I use the phrase 'sibling society' to suggest a culture fundamentally without fathers, mothers, grandfathers, grandmothers, or ancestors. The thinking is horizontal.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bly/i-use-the-phrase-sibling-society-to-suggest-a-culture-fundamentally/) [Robert Bly](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bly/) > [All of Japan once a year will get up on their rooftops, because that's the night that the shepherd boy from one side of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bly/all-of-japan-once-a-year-will-get-up-on-their-rooftops-because-that-s/) [Robert Bly](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bly/) > [I got about half the time I wanted to write poetry. I got about half the time I needed to be a father. So…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bly/i-got-about-half-the-time-i-wanted-to-write-poetry-i-got-about-half/) [Robert Bly](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bly/) > [Every noon as the clock hands arrive at twelve, I want to tie the two arms together, And walk out of the bank carrying…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bly/every-noon-as-the-clock-hands-arrive-at-twelve-i-want-to-tie-the-two/) [Robert Bly](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bly/) > [Rumi is astounding, fertile, abundant, almost more an excitable library of poetry than a person.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bly/rumi-is-astounding-fertile-abundant-almost-more-an-excitable-library/) [Robert Bly](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bly/) > [One could say the higher the spirit goes, the more deeply the soul sinks down into the waters of melancholy and tragedy. Drowning in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bly/one-could-say-the-higher-the-spirit-goes-the-more-deeply-the-soul/) [Robert Bly](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bly/) > [Don't go outside your house to see flowers. My friend, don't bother with that excursion. Inside your body there are flowers. One flower has…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bly/don-t-go-outside-your-house-to-see-flowers-my-friend-don-t-bother/) [Robert Bly](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bly/) > [The models of adulthood are disappearing fast. How can two people have a new marriage if neither of them is an adult?](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bly/the-models-of-adulthood-are-disappearing-fast-how-can-two-people-have/) [Robert Bly](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bly/) > [I have spent many years trying to recover a common language, one that can cross the distance between people.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bly/i-have-spent-many-years-trying-to-recover-a-common-language-one-that/) [Robert Bly](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bly/) > [One out of three black men are in the criminal justice system in some form. Their despair is beginning to resonate through the entire…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bly/one-out-of-three-black-men-are-in-the-criminal-justice-system-in-some/) [Robert Bly](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bly/) > [Sociological prose is generally written without images in an exact form for an academic audience.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bly/sociological-prose-is-generally-written-without-images-in-an-exact/) [Robert Bly](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bly/) > [We spend our life until we’re twenty deciding what parts of ourself to put into the bag, and we spend the rest of our…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bly/we-spend-our-life-until-we-re-twenty-deciding-what-parts-of-ourself/) [Robert Bly](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bly/) > [Every modern male has, lying at the bottom of his psyche, a large, primitive being covered with hair down to his feet. Making contact…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bly/every-modern-male-has-lying-at-the-bottom-of-his-psyche-a-large/) [Robert Bly](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bly/) > [My feeling is that poetry is also a healing process, and then when a person tries to write poetry with depth or beauty, he…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bly/my-feeling-is-that-poetry-is-also-a-healing-process-and-then-when-a/) [Robert Bly](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bly/) > [The ancestors are very much invested in the children, because the children are the ones who are going to continue the world that the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bly/the-ancestors-are-very-much-invested-in-the-children-because-the/) [Robert Bly](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bly/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/ifs/robert-bly/#itemlist", "name": "10 Ifs Quotes By Robert Bly", "numberOfItems": 10, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "The models of adulthood are disappearing fast. 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The Native Americans, who stand for vertical thinking more than anyone else in our culture, have been setting up totally flat casinos for honkies.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Robert Bly" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bly/if-you-want-to-know-what-it-will-be-like-when-we-are-more-deeply-into/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/530/robert-bly-3269_casinos_if-you-want-to-know-what-it-will-be-like_2794017.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/530/robert-bly-3269_casinos_if-you-want-to-know-what-it-will-be-like_2794017.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/530/robert-bly-3269_casinos_if-you-want-to-know-what-it-will-be-like_2794017.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“If you want to know what it will be like when we are more deeply into the horizontal, simply go to one of…” — Robert Bly", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 6, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "I saw Sophia Loren - the Italian woman with those wonderful cheekbones - in a movie the other day. She must have had 24 face-lifts, and she looks like an alien, as if she weren't from this world at all. Her Italian wrinkles would have been a thousand times more beautiful.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Robert Bly" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bly/i-saw-sophia-loren-the-italian-woman-with-those-wonderful-cheekbones/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/add/robert-bly-3269_aliens_i-saw-sophia-loren-the-italian-woman-wit_887947.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/add/robert-bly-3269_aliens_i-saw-sophia-loren-the-italian-woman-wit_887947.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/add/robert-bly-3269_aliens_i-saw-sophia-loren-the-italian-woman-wit_887947.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I saw Sophia Loren - the Italian woman with those wonderful cheekbones - in a movie the other day. She must…” — Robert Bly", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 7, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "To me, the hope lies in adults forgetting about their retirement and turning toward the adolescents and helping pull the adolescents over that mysterious line drawn on the ground into adulthood. If we don't do that, the adolescents are going to stay exactly where they are for the next 30 or 40 years.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Robert Bly" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bly/to-me-the-hope-lies-in-adults-forgetting-about-their-retirement-and/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6a7/robert-bly-3269_adulthood_to-me-the-hope-lies-in-adults-forgetting_1015507.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6a7/robert-bly-3269_adulthood_to-me-the-hope-lies-in-adults-forgetting_1015507.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6a7/robert-bly-3269_adulthood_to-me-the-hope-lies-in-adults-forgetting_1015507.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“To me, the hope lies in adults forgetting about their retirement and turning toward the adolescents and…” — Robert Bly", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 8, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Adolescents believe that the world belongs to the living, or more particularly to living people their age, so they feel within their rights if they destroy the canon or rewrite the fairy stories or act like Red Guards.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Robert Bly" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bly/adolescents-believe-that-the-world-belongs-to-the-living-or-more/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/21d/robert-bly-3269_adolescents_adolescents-believe-that-the-world-belon_2205871.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/21d/robert-bly-3269_adolescents_adolescents-believe-that-the-world-belon_2205871.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/21d/robert-bly-3269_adolescents_adolescents-believe-that-the-world-belon_2205871.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Adolescents believe that the world belongs to the living, or more particularly to living people their age…” — Robert Bly", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 9, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "One day while studying a Yeats poem I decided to write poetry the rest of my life. I recognized that a single short poem has room for history, music, psychology, religious thought, mood, occult speculation, character, and events of one's own life. I still feel surprised that such various substances can find shelter and nourishment in a poem. A poem in fact may be a sort of nourishing liquid, such as one uses to keep an amoeba alive. 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I recognized that a…” — Robert Bly", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 10, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "All of those on the left, as I am, have always vastly preferred the democratic society over the hierarchical society and still do, but the democratic culture doesn't exist without highly informed citizens capable of thinking well, and if you have schools in which 40 percent of the people coming out of them cannot make change for a dollar, you don't have a democracy. 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