---
title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Each of us keeps, battened down inside…"
description: "\"Each of us keeps, battened down inside himself, a sort of lunatic giant; impossible socially, but full scale; and it's the knockings and battering we s..."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/54f/elizabeth-bowen-1197_banality_each-of-us-keeps-battened-down-inside-hi_2693769.png"
---

#  Each of us keeps, battened down inside himself, a sort of…

![“Each of us keeps, battened down inside himself, a sort of lunatic giant; impossible socially, but full scale; and it's the knockings and battering we sometimes hear in each other that keep our banter from utter banality.” quote by Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/54f/elizabeth-bowen-1197_banality_each-of-us-keeps-battened-down-inside-hi_2693769.png)   [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/54f/elizabeth-bowen-1197_banality_each-of-us-keeps-battened-down-inside-hi_2693769.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/54f/elizabeth-bowen-1197_banality_each-of-us-keeps-battened-down-inside-hi_2693769.png)

> “Each of us keeps, battened down inside himself, a sort of lunatic giant; impossible socially, but full scale; and it's the knockings and battering we sometimes hear in each other that keep our banter from utter banality.”

[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.

Each person harbors an inner chaotic giant; shared struggles prevent banality in conversation.

**In simple terms:** Inner chaos fuels depth.

Key Takeaway

Embrace vulnerability to enrich dialogue.

Themes

psychology communication vulnerability depth banality

Mood

introspective melancholic

Type

literary philosophical

When to use this quote

- friendships
- therapy groups
- creative writing
- team building
- public speaking

Key Concepts

existentialism literature

Questions to Reflect On

- How does vulnerability affect relationships?
- What helps tame inner chaos?

A Different Perspective

May romanticize turmoil.

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[Banality](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/banality/) [Banter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/banter/) [Banter Utter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/banter-utter-2678358/) [Battering](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/battering/) [Depression](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/depression/) [Giants](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/giants/) [Hear Banter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/hear-banter-2678359/) [Impossible](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/impossible/) [Knocking](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/knocking/) [Lunatic](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/lunatic/) [Psychological](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/psychological/) [Scales](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/scales/) [Sometimes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/sometimes/) [Utter Banality](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/utter-banality-2678360/)

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> [A battering ram can knock down a city wall, but it cannot stop a hole. Different things have different uses.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/zhuangzi/a-battering-ram-can-knock-down-a-city-wall-but-it-cannot-stop-a-hole/)

[Zhuangzi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/zhuangzi/)

> [“We are the square pegs that do not neatly fit into the round holes of life without taking a battering.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kevin-berry/we-are-the-square-pegs-that-do-not-neatly-fit-into-the-round-holes-of/)

[Kevin Berry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kevin-berry/)

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> [You don't really get fly-halves battering each other.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/owen-farrell/you-don-t-really-get-fly-halves-battering-each-other/)

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[Louisa May Alcott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/louisa-may-alcott/)

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[Jeremy Grantham](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jeremy-grantham/)

> [The body image took a real battering. I had really not taken on board how I would feel dressed in a flimsy dress in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lynda-bellingham/the-body-image-took-a-real-battering-i-had-really-not-taken-on-board/)

[Lynda Bellingham](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lynda-bellingham/)

> [Battering the gates of heaven with the storms of prayer.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alfred-lord-tennyson/battering-the-gates-of-heaven-with-the-storms-of-prayer/)

[Alfred Lord Tennyson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alfred-lord-tennyson/)

## 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/)

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> [What concerns me most is the horrible degradation our notions of truth, civility, and decency have undergone. Also the way that language has been…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-saunders/what-concerns-me-most-is-the-horrible-degradation-our-notions-of/)

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