--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: She posed as being more indolent than she…" description: "\"“She posed as being more indolent than she felt, for fear of finding herself less able than she could wish.”\" — Elizabeth Bowen" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/018/elizabeth-bowen-1197_failure_she-posed-as-being-more-indolent-than-sh_342358.png" --- # She posed as being more indolent than she felt, for fear… ![“She posed as being more indolent than she felt, for fear of finding herself less able than she could wish.” quote by Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/018/elizabeth-bowen-1197_failure_she-posed-as-being-more-indolent-than-sh_342358.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/018/elizabeth-bowen-1197_failure_she-posed-as-being-more-indolent-than-sh_342358.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/018/elizabeth-bowen-1197_failure_she-posed-as-being-more-indolent-than-sh_342358.png) > ““She posed as being more indolent than she felt, for fear of finding herself less able than she could wish.”” [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. She pretends to be lazy to avoid confronting her own perceived inadequacy. **In simple terms:** She hides her true abilities out of fear. Key Takeaway Recognize and confront self‑imposed limits. Themes self‑deception insecurity identity fear Mood reflective introspective Type philosophical inspirational When to use this quote - personal relationships - career advancement - creative work Key Concepts psychology self‑esteem social masks Questions to Reflect On - What masks do you wear to protect yourself? - How can honesty empower growth? A Different Perspective May oversimplify complex emotional states. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Failure](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/failure/) [Fear](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/fear/) [Heart](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/heart/) [Indolent](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/indolent/) [Nonchalance](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/nonchalance/) [Success](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/success/) ## Related quotes > [Of the nude pictures: Sure I posed. I needed the money.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marilyn-monroe/of-the-nude-pictures-sure-i-posed-i-needed-the-money/) [Marilyn Monroe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marilyn-monroe/) > [“God's prayer-line is not a wheel of fortune or lottery for the indolent.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bryant-mcgill/god-s-prayer-line-is-not-a-wheel-of-fortune-or-lottery-for-the/) [Bryant McGill](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bryant-mcgill/) > [“It's possible that Knight believed he was one of the few sane people left. He was confounded by the idea that passing the prime…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-finkel/it-s-possible-that-knight-believed-he-was-one-of-the-few-sane-people/) [Michael Finkel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-finkel/) > [As writers become more numerous, it is natural for readers to become more indolent.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/oliver-goldsmith/as-writers-become-more-numerous-it-is-natural-for-readers-to-become-2/) [Oliver Goldsmith](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/oliver-goldsmith/) > [In indolent vacuity of thought.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-cowper/in-indolent-vacuity-of-thought/) [William Cowper](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-cowper/) > [“Kay yawned and rested her forehead against the windowpane, her fingers idly strumming the guitar: the strings sang a hollow, lulling tune, as monotonously…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/truman-capote/kay-yawned-and-rested-her-forehead-against-the-windowpane-her-fingers/) [Truman Capote](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/truman-capote/) > [Man like every other animal is by nature indolent. If nothing spurs him on, then he will hardly think, and will behave from habit…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/albert-einstein/man-like-every-other-animal-is-by-nature-indolent-if-nothing-spurs/) [Albert Einstein](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/albert-einstein/) > [If everyone were not so indolent they would realise that beauty is beauty even when it is irritating and stimulating not only when it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gertrude-stein/if-everyone-were-not-so-indolent-they-would-realise-that-beauty-is/) [Gertrude Stein](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gertrude-stein/) > [“Success is reserved for you if you persevere; it's not deserved by you if you are indolent!”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/israelmore-ayivor/success-is-reserved-for-you-if-you-persevere-it-s-not-deserved-by-you/) [Israelmore Ayivor](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/israelmore-ayivor/) > [“The indolent mind is not empty, but full of vermin.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-ward-beecher/the-indolent-mind-is-not-empty-but-full-of-vermin/) [Henry Ward Beecher](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-ward-beecher/) > [In New York, one must collapse to be indolent.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mason-cooley/in-new-york-one-must-collapse-to-be-indolent/) [Mason Cooley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mason-cooley/) > [It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-philpot-curran/it-is-the-common-fate-of-the-indolent-to-see-their-rights-become-a/) [John Philpot Curran](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-philpot-curran/) > [I owe no duty to the forum, the election ground or the senate; I am ... no barking pleader, no judge, no soldier, no…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tertullian/i-owe-no-duty-to-the-forum-the-election-ground-or-the-senate-i-am-no/) [Tertullian](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tertullian/) > [Indolent people, whatever taste they may have for society, seek eagerly for pleasure, and find nothing. They have an empty head and seared hearts.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/johann-georg-ritter-von-zimmermann/indolent-people-whatever-taste-they-may-have-for-society-seek-eagerly/) [Johann Georg Ritter von Zimmermann](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/johann-georg-ritter-von-zimmermann/) > [Nothing is difficult; it is only we who are indolent.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/benjamin-haydon/nothing-is-difficult-it-is-only-we-who-are-indolent/) [Benjamin Haydon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/benjamin-haydon/) ## 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 Failure quotes > [When you do things they're absolutely right at that time for you and it can always teach you something about yourself. You can take…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kym-marsh/when-you-do-things-they-re-absolutely-right-at-that-time-for-you-and/) [Kym Marsh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kym-marsh/) > [Failures happen. You can't cry over them. You just take it in your stride because you know that you have done your best... Sometimes,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/divya-dutta/failures-happen-you-can-t-cry-over-them-you-just-take-it-in-your/) [Divya Dutta](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/divya-dutta/) > [No one is completely unhappy at the failure of his best friend.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/groucho-marx/no-one-is-completely-unhappy-at-the-failure-of-his-best-friend/) [Groucho Marx](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/groucho-marx/) > [“Rhiannon's Law #28: If you're going to fuck up, be sure to fuck up good and proper. Nothing makes failure acceptable, so you might…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/rhiannon-s-law-28-if-you-re-going-to-fuck-up-be-sure-to-fuck-up-good/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [Failure is a part of life and you have to learn to deal with it. Failure is something that is part of life's cycle…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/colin-powell/failure-is-a-part-of-life-and-you-have-to-learn-to-deal-with-it/) [Colin Powell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/colin-powell/) > [If my child had prejudice in his head, I'd be ashamed. I would see it as my failure as a parent.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/salman-rushdie/if-my-child-had-prejudice-in-his-head-i-d-be-ashamed-i-would-see-it/) [Salman Rushdie](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/salman-rushdie/) > [First action was a mistake. What about the second? third? fourth and fifth?...Mehn you are bad...](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/first-action-was-a-mistake-what-about-the-second-third-fourth-and/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [God's love never fail :)](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/god-s-love-never-fail/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [Don’t you just hate nights like that, when you think over every mistake you’ve made, every hurt you’ve received, every bit of meanness you’ve…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charlaine-harris/don-t-you-just-hate-nights-like-that-when-you-think-over-every/) [Charlaine Harris](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charlaine-harris/) > [“Our failure to understand another being's inner reality doesn't make that reality any less real, or any less valuable to that being. (p.255)”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kathryn-schulz/our-failure-to-understand-another-being-s-inner-reality-doesn-t-make/) [Kathryn Schulz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kathryn-schulz/) > [I hope that the Palestinians don't make the mistake of unleashing a new intifada. They've tried it twice before, and the consequences were bad…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tom-segev/i-hope-that-the-palestinians-don-t-make-the-mistake-of-unleashing-a/) [Tom Segev](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tom-segev/) > [Don't take too much comfort in the fact that you're successful today because tomorrow could bring failure. There's no surety in life.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-savage/don-t-take-too-much-comfort-in-the-fact-that-you-re-successful-today/) [Michael Savage](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-savage/) > [“It took me years to learn to sit at my desk for more than two minutes at a time, to put up with the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/erica-jong/it-took-me-years-to-learn-to-sit-at-my-desk-for-more-than-two-minutes/) [Erica Jong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/erica-jong/) > [failure in the theater is more public, more brilliant, more unreal than in any other field.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lillian-hellman/failure-in-the-theater-is-more-public-more-brilliant-more-unreal-than/) [Lillian Hellman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lillian-hellman/) > [As we are coming to the end of the year, I want you to forget about the past, the failure, the negative thoughts or…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/as-we-are-coming-to-the-end-of-the-year-i-want-you-to-forget-about/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) [Browse all 27,498 Failure quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/failure/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“She posed as being more indolent than she felt, for fear of finding herself less able than she could wish.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Elizabeth Bowen" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/she-posed-as-being-more-indolent-than-she-felt-for-fear-of-finding/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Failure" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/she-posed-as-being-more-indolent-than-she-felt-for-fear-of-finding/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/018/elizabeth-bowen-1197_failure_she-posed-as-being-more-indolent-than-sh_342358.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/018/elizabeth-bowen-1197_failure_she-posed-as-being-more-indolent-than-sh_342358.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/018/elizabeth-bowen-1197_failure_she-posed-as-being-more-indolent-than-sh_342358.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“She posed as being more indolent than she felt, for fear of finding herself less able than she could wish.” — Elizabeth Bowen", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Elizabeth Bowen", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "“She posed as being more indolent...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/she-posed-as-being-more-indolent-than-she-felt-for-fear-of-finding/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/she-posed-as-being-more-indolent-than-she-felt-for-fear-of-finding/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```