--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: I swear that each of us keeps, battened…" description: "\"“I swear that each of us keeps, battened down inside himself, a sort of lunatic giant - impossible socially, but full-scale - and that it's the knockin..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ae7/elizabeth-bowen-1197_lunacy_i-swear-that-each-of-us-keeps-battened-d_2004486.png" --- # I swear that each of us keeps, battened down inside… ![“I swear that each of us keeps, battened down inside himself, a sort of lunatic giant - impossible socially, but full-scale - and that it's the knockings and baterrings we sometimes hear in each other that keeps our intercourse from utter banaility.” quote by Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ae7/elizabeth-bowen-1197_lunacy_i-swear-that-each-of-us-keeps-battened-d_2004486.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ae7/elizabeth-bowen-1197_lunacy_i-swear-that-each-of-us-keeps-battened-d_2004486.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ae7/elizabeth-bowen-1197_lunacy_i-swear-that-each-of-us-keeps-battened-d_2004486.png) > ““I swear that each of us keeps, battened down inside himself, a sort of lunatic giant - impossible socially, but full-scale - and that it's the knockings and baterrings we sometimes hear in each other that keeps our intercourse from utter banaility.”” [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. People conceal inner turmoil, appearing normal while battling inner chaos, which prevents superficial interactions. **In simple terms:** Inner chaos is hidden behind polite façades. Key Takeaway Acknowledge and address inner struggles. Themes psychology social interaction authenticity inner conflict Mood introspective melancholic Type literary philosophical When to use this quote - family gatherings - work meetings - social events - therapy sessions Key Concepts existentialism social masks communication theory Questions to Reflect On - What masks do we wear in daily life? - How can we foster deeper connections? A Different Perspective People may resist exposing vulnerability. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Impossible Socially](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/impossible-socially-3545064/) [Intercourse Utter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/intercourse-utter-3545061/) [Keeps Intercourse](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/keeps-intercourse-3545063/) [Lunacy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/lunacy/) [Madness](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/madness/) [Social-etiquette](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/social-etiquette-173104/) [Socially Scale](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/socially-scale-3545065/) [Utter Banaility](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/utter-banaility-3545062/) ## Related quotes > [“Why is it that the look of another person looking at you is different from everything else in the Cosmos? 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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 Lunacy quotes > [If you accept the institutional lunacy, then the policies are rational.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/noam-chomsky/if-you-accept-the-institutional-lunacy-then-the-policies-are-rational/) [Noam Chomsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/noam-chomsky/) > [Oh, all kinds of lunacy happens in Ireland, all kinds of lunacy.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anjelica-huston/oh-all-kinds-of-lunacy-happens-in-ireland-all-kinds-of-lunacy/) [Anjelica Huston](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anjelica-huston/) > [“When you are gunning to be like other people, you are foolishly repeating their mistakes, and the worst of it all is that you…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-bassey-johnson/when-you-are-gunning-to-be-like-other-people-you-are-foolishly/) [Michael Bassey Johnson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-bassey-johnson/) > [“He is smitten on the brain, -he reads and writes verses! 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Can a person be gripped by lunacy, only to be released a short time later, never to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dee-remy/how-do-people-know-they-are-sane-can-a-person-be-gripped-by-lunacy/) [Dee Remy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dee-remy/) > [She is furious with herself for her own stupidity. Opening herself up like this, voluntarily, to a lifetime of worry and anguish. It was…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/khaled-hosseini/she-is-furious-with-herself-for-her-own-stupidity-opening-herself-up/) [Khaled Hosseini](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/khaled-hosseini/) > [Golf is typical capitalist lunacy.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-bernard-shaw/golf-is-typical-capitalist-lunacy/) [George Bernard Shaw](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-bernard-shaw/) > [“There is a duality to darkness known only to those who’ve been infected by its touch. Everyone knows the shadows: shallow, comfortable, mostly harmless…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/darrell-drake/there-is-a-duality-to-darkness-known-only-to-those-who-ve-been/) [Darrell Drake](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/darrell-drake/) > [Moderates want their faith respected. They don't want faith itself criticized, and yet faith itself is what is bringing us all this - this…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sam-harris/moderates-want-their-faith-respected-they-don-t-want-faith-itself/) [Sam Harris](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sam-harris/) > [“Oddity, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. What one person rejects as lunacy, another reveres as truth.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/philip-gulley/oddity-like-beauty-is-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder-what-one-person/) [Philip Gulley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/philip-gulley/) > [Idiocy is the female defect ... 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