--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Almost everybody wore a curious limpidity…" description: "\"Almost everybody wore a curious limpidity of expression, like newborn babies or souls just after death. Dazed but curiously dignified… after a criseof ..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1c9/elizabeth-bowen-1197_after-death_almost-everybody-wore-a-curious-limpidit_1669112.jpg" --- # Almost everybody wore a curious limpidity of expression… ![“Almost everybody wore a curious limpidity of expression, like newborn babies or souls just after death. Dazed but curiously dignified… after a criseof hysterical revulsion and tiredness, I passed beyondand became entered by a rather sublime feeling.” quote by Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1c9/elizabeth-bowen-1197_after-death_almost-everybody-wore-a-curious-limpidit_1669112.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1c9/elizabeth-bowen-1197_after-death_almost-everybody-wore-a-curious-limpidit_1669112.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1c9/elizabeth-bowen-1197_after-death_almost-everybody-wore-a-curious-limpidit_1669112.jpg) > “Almost everybody wore a curious limpidity of expression, like newborn babies or souls just after death. Dazed but curiously dignified… after a criseof hysterical revulsion and tiredness, I passed beyondand became entered by a rather sublime feeling.” [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Characters display a detached, almost death‑like clarity, moving through emotional crises toward a sublime, detached feeling. **In simple terms:** People seem detached like newborns after trauma. Key Takeaway Recognize emotional numbness as a coping phase. Themes trauma detachment transcendence Mood melancholic introspective Type literary psychological When to use this quote - grief counseling - literary analysis - personal healing Key Concepts psychology existentialism Questions to Reflect On - How does numbness affect relationships? - What steps restore emotional vitality? A Different Perspective Detachment can hinder genuine connection if prolonged. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [After death](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/after-death/) [Baby](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/baby/) [Dazed](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/dazed/) [Death](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/death/) [Expression](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/expression/) [Feelings](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/feelings/) [London](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/london/) [Newborn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/newborn/) [Newborn baby](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/newborn-baby/) [Peace](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/peace/) [Revulsion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/revulsion/) [Soul](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/soul/) [Spirituality](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/spirituality/) [Sublime](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/sublime/) [War](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/war/) [War of the worlds](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/war-of-the-worlds/) [World](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/world/) [World war ii](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/world-war-ii/) ## Related quotes > [“It might be said that in the sublime feeling, thinking becomes impatient, despairing, disinterested in attaining the ends of freedom by means of nature.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/zinzi-clemmons/it-might-be-said-that-in-the-sublime-feeling-thinking-becomes/) [Zinzi Clemmons](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/zinzi-clemmons/) > [“When tenderness softened her heart, and the sublime feeling of universal love penetrated her, she found no voice that replied so well to hers…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mary-shelley/when-tenderness-softened-her-heart-and-the-sublime-feeling-of/) [Mary Shelley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mary-shelley/) > [“The nocturnal glory of being great without being anything! The sombre majesty of splendours no one knows… And I suddenly experience the sublime feeling…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/fernando-pessoa/the-nocturnal-glory-of-being-great-without-being-anything-the-sombre/) [Fernando Pessoa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/fernando-pessoa/) > [People, particularly big men carrying big rifles, don't expect lip from a scrawny thing like me. They always look a bit dazed when they…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/leigh-bardugo/people-particularly-big-men-carrying-big-rifles-don-t-expect-lip-from/) [Leigh Bardugo](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/leigh-bardugo/) > [Grief that is dazed and speechless is out of fashion: the modern woman mourns her husband loudly and tells you the whole story of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jean-de-la-bruyere/grief-that-is-dazed-and-speechless-is-out-of-fashion-the-modern-woman/) [Jean de la Bruyere](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jean-de-la-bruyere/) > [There is a certain poetic value, and that a genuine one, in this sense of having missed the full meaning of things. There is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gilbert-k-chesterton/there-is-a-certain-poetic-value-and-that-a-genuine-one-in-this-sense/) [Gilbert K. Chesterton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gilbert-k-chesterton/) > [“Sure enough, they were both sitting in the floor, each with bed-head looking a little dazed.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/quinn-loftis/sure-enough-they-were-both-sitting-in-the-floor-each-with-bed-head/) [Quinn Loftis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/quinn-loftis/) > [“the reality of being here eludes me, I can’t focus, I am dazed. And I want to stay this way. If I have too…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sonali-deraniyagala/the-reality-of-being-here-eludes-me-i-can-t-focus-i-am-dazed-and-i/) [Sonali Deraniyagala](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sonali-deraniyagala/) > [What Whitney Houston has accomplished will never be accomplished. She's the most famous person on the planet as far as vocaling and her songs.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/narada-michael-walden/what-whitney-houston-has-accomplished-will-never-be-accomplished-she/) [Narada Michael Walden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/narada-michael-walden/) > [“They’re dazed because you don’t have your ‘back the fuck off’ sign on today.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-washington/they-re-dazed-because-you-don-t-have-your-back-the-fuck-off-sign-on/) [Jane Washington](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jane-washington/) > [The older you get, the more rules they’re gonna try to get you to follow. You just gotta keep livin’ man, l-i-v-i-n’](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/matthew-mcconaughey/the-older-you-get-the-more-rules-they-re-gonna-try-to-get-you-to/) [Matthew McConaughey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/matthew-mcconaughey/) > [My eyes were dazed by you for a little, and that was all.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-hardy/my-eyes-were-dazed-by-you-for-a-little-and-that-was-all/) [Thomas Hardy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-hardy/) > [Political pundits are saying President George W. Bush has made gains in two key states: dazed and confused.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-letterman/political-pundits-are-saying-president-george-w-bush-has-made-gains/) [David Letterman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-letterman/) > [A photograph is a universe of dots. The grain, the halide, the little silver things clumped in the emulsion. Once you get inside a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/don-delillo/a-photograph-is-a-universe-of-dots-the-grain-the-halide-the-little/) [Don DeLillo](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/don-delillo/) > [One of the deepest and strangest of all human moods is the mood which will suddenly strike us perhaps in a garden at night,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/one-of-the-deepest-and-strangest-of-all-human-moods-is-the-mood-which/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) ## More by Elizabeth Bowen > [Temperamentally, the writer exists on happenings, on contacts, conflicts, action and reaction, speed, pressure, tension. Were he acontemplative purely, he would not write.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/temperamentally-the-writer-exists-on-happenings-on-contacts-conflicts/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [“Are you really an orphan? Yes, I am, said Portia a shade shortly. Are you? No, not at present, but I suppose it's a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/are-you-really-an-orphan-yes-i-am-said-portia-a-shade-shortly-are-you/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [It is not our exalted feelings, it is our sentiments that build the necessary home.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/it-is-not-our-exalted-feelings-it-is-our-sentiments-that-build-the/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [Every love has a poetic relevance of its own; each love brings to light only what to it is relevant. Outside lies the junk-yard…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/every-love-has-a-poetic-relevance-of-its-own-each-love-brings-to/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [without fiction, either life would be insufficient or the winds from the north would blow too cold.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/without-fiction-either-life-would-be-insufficient-or-the-winds-from/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [One's sentiments -- call them that -- one's fidelities are so instinctive that one hardly knows they exist: only when they are betrayed or,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/one-s-sentiments-call-them-that-one-s-fidelities-are-so-instinctive/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [Only in a house where one has learnt to be lonely does one have this solicitude for things. One's relation to them, the daily…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/only-in-a-house-where-one-has-learnt-to-be-lonely-does-one-have-this/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [To walk into history is to be free at once, to be at large among people.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/to-walk-into-history-is-to-be-free-at-once-to-be-at-large-among-people/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [The wish to lead out one's lover must be a tribal feeling; the wish to be seen as loved is part of one's self-respect.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/the-wish-to-lead-out-one-s-lover-must-be-a-tribal-feeling-the-wish-to/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [Convention was our safeguard: could one have stronger?](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/convention-was-our-safeguard-could-one-have-stronger/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [“First love, with its frantic haughty imagination, swings its object clear of the everyday, over the rut of living, making him all looks, silences,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/first-love-with-its-frantic-haughty-imagination-swings-its-object/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [to leap is not only to leap, it is to hit the ground somewhere.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/to-leap-is-not-only-to-leap-it-is-to-hit-the-ground-somewhere/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [That is partly why women marry - to keep up the fiction of being in the hub of things.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/that-is-partly-why-women-marry-to-keep-up-the-fiction-of-being-in-the/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [“But Miss Pym gave an impression, somehow, of having been attacked from within .”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/but-miss-pym-gave-an-impression-somehow-of-having-been-attacked-from/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [rudeness to Mrs. Dosely was like dropping a pat of butter on to a hot plate - it slid and melted away.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/rudeness-to-mrs-dosely-was-like-dropping-a-pat-of-butter-on-to-a-hot/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) [Explore all 275 Elizabeth Bowen quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) ## More After death quotes > [The world of imagination is the world of eternity. It is the divine bosom into which we shall all go after death of the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-blake/the-world-of-imagination-is-the-world-of-eternity-it-is-the-divine/) [William Blake](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-blake/) > [After death there is nothing.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seneca-the-younger/after-death-there-is-nothing/) [Seneca the Younger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seneca-the-younger/) > [For days after death hair and fingernails continue to grow, but phone calls taper off.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/johnny-carson/for-days-after-death-hair-and-fingernails-continue-to-grow-but-phone/) [Johnny Carson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/johnny-carson/) > [ Now they \[the Powers\] have started the aggression, and the extinction of our nation is imminent. If we just fold our arms and yield… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/empress-dowager-cixi/now-they-the-powers-have-started-the-aggression-and-the-extinction-of/) Empress Dowager Cixi > [You're a religious man, ... You believe in God and life after death. I also believe. When we come to the other world and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/simon-wiesenthal/you-re-a-religious-man-you-believe-in-god-and-life-after-death-i-also/) [Simon Wiesenthal](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/simon-wiesenthal/) > [And after death something new begins, over which all the powers of the world of death can have no more control.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dietrich-bonhoeffer/and-after-death-something-new-begins-over-which-all-the-powers-of-the/) [Dietrich Bonhoeffer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dietrich-bonhoeffer/) > [If the Soul sees, after death , what passes on this earth , and watches over the welfare of those it loves, then must…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/albert-pike/if-the-soul-sees-after-death-what-passes-on-this-earth-and-watches/) [Albert Pike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/albert-pike/) > [When we see the many grave-stones which have fallen in, which have been defaced by the footsteps of the congregation, which lie buried under…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/when-we-see-the-many-grave-stones-which-have-fallen-in-which-have/) [Johann Wolfgang von Goethe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/) > [It is for all men that come into the world once to die; and after death the judgment! 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All they…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-matheson/after-death-so-few-people-who-come-across-possess-awareness-of-any/) [Richard Matheson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-matheson/) > [I think I have fairly heard and fairly weighed the evidence on both sides, and I remain an utter disbeliever in almost all that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alfred-russel-wallace/i-think-i-have-fairly-heard-and-fairly-weighed-the-evidence-on-both/) [Alfred Russel Wallace](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alfred-russel-wallace/) > [I want people to emphasize life before death as opposed to life after death.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ayaan-hirsi-ali/i-want-people-to-emphasize-life-before-death-as-opposed-to-life-after/) [Ayaan Hirsi Ali](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ayaan-hirsi-ali/) > [I thought of the priest who'd told me that many religions hold that it is easier to be closely connected to people we love…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-berg/i-thought-of-the-priest-who-d-told-me-that-many-religions-hold-that/) [Elizabeth Berg](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-berg/) > [“And a soul would run by a living being, touch them softly on the shoulder or cheek, and continue on its way to heaven.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alice-sebold/and-a-soul-would-run-by-a-living-being-touch-them-softly-on-the/) [Alice Sebold](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alice-sebold/) [Browse all 303 After death quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/after-death/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Almost everybody wore a curious limpidity of expression, like newborn babies or souls just after death. 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