--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Woman ... is the divine object, violated…" description: "\"Woman ... is the divine object, violated, endlessly sacrificed yet always reborn, whose only joy, achieved through a subtle interplay of images, lies i..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c02/anne-desclos-27632_contemplation_woman-is-the-divine-object-violated-endl_1887544.png" --- # Woman ... is the divine object, violated, endlessly… ![“Woman ... is the divine object, violated, endlessly sacrificed yet always reborn, whose only joy, achieved through a subtle interplay of images, lies in contemplation of herself.” quote by Anne Desclos](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c02/anne-desclos-27632_contemplation_woman-is-the-divine-object-violated-endl_1887544.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c02/anne-desclos-27632_contemplation_woman-is-the-divine-object-violated-endl_1887544.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c02/anne-desclos-27632_contemplation_woman-is-the-divine-object-violated-endl_1887544.png) > “Woman ... is the divine object, violated, endlessly sacrificed yet always reborn, whose only joy, achieved through a subtle interplay of images, lies in contemplation of herself.” [Anne Desclos](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anne-desclos/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The passage describes women as sacred yet repeatedly harmed, constantly reborn, finding joy only in self-reflection. **In simple terms:** Women are sacred, hurt, reborn, find joy in self‑contemplation. Key Takeaway Honor and protect women's inner lives. Themes womanhood sacredness resilience Mood thoughtful critical Type philosophical feminist When to use this quote - art criticism - gender studies - activism - mental health Key Concepts feminist theory identity rebirth Questions to Reflect On - How can society respect women's autonomy? - What does rebirth mean for personal growth? A Different Perspective Idealizing women may overlook systemic oppression. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Contemplation](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/contemplation/) [Divine](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/divine/) [Joy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/joy/) [Lying](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/lying/) [Reborn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/reborn/) [Women](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/women/) ## Related quotes > [“So if the ultimate felicity of man does not consist in external things which are called the goods of fortune, nor in the goods…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-aquinas/so-if-the-ultimate-felicity-of-man-does-not-consist-in-external/) [Thomas Aquinas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-aquinas/) > [The daemonic-divine object may appear to the mind an object of horror and dread, but at the same time it is no less something…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rudolf-otto/the-daemonic-divine-object-may-appear-to-the-mind-an-object-of-horror/) [Rudolf Otto](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rudolf-otto/) > [“I've never met a woman with divine sweetness in her eyes, or a delicacy in her smile that was so glorious, that it made…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lionel-suggs/i-ve-never-met-a-woman-with-divine-sweetness-in-her-eyes-or-a/) [Lionel Suggs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lionel-suggs/) > [Only a Woman, divine, could know all that a woman can suffer.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/willa-cather/only-a-woman-divine-could-know-all-that-a-woman-can-suffer/) [Willa Cather](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/willa-cather/) > [“In reality, the only true model of a successful woman was the Divine Sarah.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rabih-alameddine/in-reality-the-only-true-model-of-a-successful-woman-was-the-divine/) [Rabih Alameddine](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rabih-alameddine/) > [One time he was asked if he believed in an afterlife. 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In this timeless land of enchantment, the age of chivalry, magic and make-believe are reborn…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walt-disney/here-is-the-world-of-imagination-hopes-and-dreams-in-this-timeless/) [Walt Disney](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walt-disney/) > [Nothing old is ever reborn but neither does it totally disappear. And that which has once been born, will always reappear in a new…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alvar-aalto/nothing-old-is-ever-reborn-but-neither-does-it-totally-disappear-and/) [Alvar Aalto](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alvar-aalto/) ## More by Anne Desclos > [Debauchery conceived of as a kind of ascetic experience is not new, either for men or for women, but until Story of O no…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anne-desclos/debauchery-conceived-of-as-a-kind-of-ascetic-experience-is-not-new/) [Anne Desclos](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anne-desclos/) > [A man in love ... is the master, so it seems, but only if his lady friend permits it! The need to interchange the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anne-desclos/a-man-in-love-is-the-master-so-it-seems-but-only-if-his-lady-friend/) [Anne Desclos](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anne-desclos/) > [Who I am finally, if not the long silent part of someone, the secret and nocturnal part which has never betrayed itself in public…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anne-desclos/who-i-am-finally-if-not-the-long-silent-part-of-someone-the-secret/) [Anne Desclos](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anne-desclos/) > [I wrote 'The story of O' alone, for Dominique Aury, to interest him, to please him, to occupy him. I wasn't young, nor particularly…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anne-desclos/i-wrote-the-story-of-o-alone-for-dominique-aury-to-interest-him-to/) [Anne Desclos](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anne-desclos/) > [I wrote it alone, for him, to interest him, to please him, to occupy him. I wasn't young, nor particularly pretty. I needed something…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anne-desclos/i-wrote-it-alone-for-him-to-interest-him-to-please-him-to-occupy-him/) [Anne Desclos](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anne-desclos/) > [ I think that submissiveness can \[be\] and is a formidable weapon, which women will use as long as it isn't taken from them. ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anne-desclos/i-think-that-submissiveness-can-be-and-is-a-formidable-weapon-which/) [Anne Desclos](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anne-desclos/) > [I think I have a repressed bent for the military, I like discipline without question, specific schedules and duties.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anne-desclos/i-think-i-have-a-repressed-bent-for-the-military-i-like-discipline/) [Anne Desclos](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anne-desclos/) > [To love is to live on the precipice.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anne-desclos/to-love-is-to-live-on-the-precipice/) [Anne Desclos](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anne-desclos/) > [A truly submissive woman is to be treasured, cherished and protected for it is only she who can give a man the gift of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anne-desclos/a-truly-submissive-woman-is-to-be-treasured-cherished-and-protected/) [Anne Desclos](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anne-desclos/) > [Is O used by René and Sir Stephen, or does she in fact use them, and...all those irons and chains and obligatory debauchery, to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anne-desclos/is-o-used-by-ren-and-sir-stephen-or-does-she-in-fact-use-them-and-all/) [Anne Desclos](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anne-desclos/) > [I wasn't young, I wasn't pretty, it was necessary to find other weapons.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anne-desclos/i-wasn-t-young-i-wasn-t-pretty-it-was-necessary-to-find-other-weapons/) [Anne Desclos](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anne-desclos/) > [I found that stiffly saluting member, of which he was so proud, rather frightening, and to tell the truth I found his pride slightly…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anne-desclos/i-found-that-stiffly-saluting-member-of-which-he-was-so-proud-rather/) [Anne Desclos](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anne-desclos/) > [Lovers and mystics are familiar with this sense of grandeur, this taste of joy - in abandoning oneself to the will of others.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anne-desclos/lovers-and-mystics-are-familiar-with-this-sense-of-grandeur-this/) [Anne Desclos](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anne-desclos/) > [You have to get past the pleasure stage, until you reach the stage of tears.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anne-desclos/you-have-to-get-past-the-pleasure-stage-until-you-reach-the-stage-of/) [Anne Desclos](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anne-desclos/) > [The voluntary captive The speechless the prisoner Which I hide in my very depths...](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anne-desclos/the-voluntary-captive-the-speechless-the-prisoner-which-i-hide-in-my/) [Anne Desclos](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anne-desclos/) [Explore all 20 Anne Desclos quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anne-desclos/) ## More Contemplation quotes > [“Inside every pause lived a contemplation”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/eric-jerome-dickey/inside-every-pause-lived-a-contemplation/) [Eric Jerome Dickey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/eric-jerome-dickey/) > [... Arthur Gride, whose bleared eyes gloated only over the outward beauties, and were blind to the spirit which reigned within, evinced - a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-dickens/arthur-gride-whose-bleared-eyes-gloated-only-over-the-outward/) [Charles Dickens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-dickens/) > [“Let no one hope to find in contemplation an escape from conflict, from anguish or from doubt. On the contrary, the deep, inexpressible certitude…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/let-no-one-hope-to-find-in-contemplation-an-escape-from-conflict-from/) [Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-merton/) > [“The problem with the contemplative life was that there was no end to contemplation, no fixed time limit after which thought had to be…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-russo/the-problem-with-the-contemplative-life-was-that-there-was-no-end-to/) [Richard Russo](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-russo/) > [Poetical taste is the only magician whose wand is not broken. No hand, except its own, can dissolve the fabric of beauty in which…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-aris-willmott/poetical-taste-is-the-only-magician-whose-wand-is-not-broken-no-hand/) [Robert Aris Willmott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-aris-willmott/) > [Catholicity seized on man... and the mystics, transcending all, taught him to ascend on high with the wings of contemplation the Ladder of Jacob…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/juan-donoso-cortes/catholicity-seized-on-man-and-the-mystics-transcending-all-taught-him/) Juan Donoso Cortes > [To enter into the realm of contemplation one must in a certain sense die: but this death is in fact the entrance to a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/to-enter-into-the-realm-of-contemplation-one-must-in-a-certain-sense/) [Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-merton/) > [The whole of life is a journey toward youthful old age, toward self-contemplation, love, gaiety, and, in a fundamental sense, the most gratifying time…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ashley-montagu/the-whole-of-life-is-a-journey-toward-youthful-old-age-toward-self/) [Ashley Montagu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ashley-montagu/) > [“Yet that grief and this joy were alike outside all the ordinary conditions of life; they were loop-holes, as it were, in that ordinary…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/leo-tolstoy/yet-that-grief-and-this-joy-were-alike-outside-all-the-ordinary/) [Leo Tolstoy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/leo-tolstoy/) > [Everyone who wants to know what will happen ought to examine what has happened: everything in this world in any epoch has their replicas…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/niccolo-machiavelli/everyone-who-wants-to-know-what-will-happen-ought-to-examine-what-has/) [Niccolo Machiavelli](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/niccolo-machiavelli/) > [We must not imitate the externals of nature with so much fidelity that the picture fails to evoke that wonderful teasing recurrence of emotion…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-f-carlson/we-must-not-imitate-the-externals-of-nature-with-so-much-fidelity/) [John F. Carlson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-f-carlson/) > [As objects of contemplation, images of the atrocious can answer to several different needs. To steel oneself against weakness. To make oneself more numb.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/as-objects-of-contemplation-images-of-the-atrocious-can-answer-to/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [I think the church should strive to give parishioners good music. 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