"to love life, to love it even when……" — Ellen Bass

to love life, to love it even when you have no stomach… - Ellen Bass

"to love life, to love it even when you have no stomach for it and everything you've held dear crumbles like burnt paper in your hands, your throat filled with the silt of it. When grief sits with you, its tropical heat thickening the air, heavy as water more fit for gills than lungs; when grief weights you like your own flesh only more of it, an obesity of grief, you think, How can a body withstand this? Then you hold life like a face between your palms, a plain face, no charming smile, no violet eyes, and you say, yes, I will take you I will love you, again."

Acceptance Quotes Air Quotes Air Heavy Quotes Between Quotes Between Your Palms Quotes Body Quotes Body Withstand Quotes Burnt Quotes Burnt Paper Quotes Charming Quotes Charming Smile Quotes Crumbles Quotes Crumbles Like Quotes Dear Quotes Dear Crumbles Quotes Everything Quotes Eye Quotes Eyes Quotes Face Quotes Face Between Quotes Face Between Your Palms Quotes Faces Quotes Filled Quotes Fit Quotes Flesh Quotes Gills Quotes Grief Quotes Grief Sits Quotes Grief Weights Quotes Hands Quotes Heat Quotes Heat Thickening Quotes Heavy Quotes Held Quotes Held Dear Quotes Hold Quotes Hold Life Quotes Hope Quotes Life Quotes Life Like Quotes Like Burnt Quotes Love Quotes Love Life Quotes Love You Quotes Lungs Quotes Lungs When Quotes More Quotes Obesity Quotes Only Quotes Own Quotes Own Flesh Quotes Palms Quotes Paper Quotes Plain Quotes Plain Face Quotes Say Quotes Say Yes Quotes Silt Quotes Sits Quotes Smile Quotes Stomach Quotes Take Quotes Take You Quotes Thickening Quotes Think Quotes Thinking Quotes Throat Quotes Throat Filled Quotes Tropical Quotes Tropical Heat Quotes Violet Quotes Violet Eyes Quotes Water Quotes Weight Quotes Weights Quotes Withstand Quotes Yes Quotes You Again Quotes You Hold Quotes You Say Quotes You Think Quotes Your Hands Quotes Your Own Quotes Your Own Flesh Quotes Your Palms Quotes Your Throat Quotes

16 Quotes by Ellen Bass

Ellen Bass has 16 quotes on this site. A few more worth reading:

See all 16 quotes by Ellen Bass »

More Acceptance Quotes

This quote is filed under Acceptance Quotes, one of 2,150 quotes in that category. Here are a few more:

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. — Aristotle
Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do… — Marcus Aurelius
Confine yourself to the present. — Marcus Aurelius
He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator. — Francis Bacon
And as I stumbled onto Eastern philosophy and Buddhism, it was the first time I had ever read any sort… — Alan Ball
Nothing is a greater impediment to being on good terms with others than being ill at ease with yourself. — HonorÈ De Balzac
The antiquity and general acceptance of an opinion is not assurance of its truth. — Pierre Bayle
Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance,… — Melody Beattie
To make oneself an object, to make oneself passive, is a very different thing from being a passive object. — Simone de Beauvoir
It's not only the most difficult thing to know one's self, but the most inconvenient. — Josh Billings
I've probably understood men too well. I realise they are predatory by nature, and I have a certain acceptance of… — Jacqueline Bisset
It is on the acceptance or rejection of the theory of the Unity of all in Nature, in its ultimate… — H. P. Blavatsky

See all 2,150 Acceptance Quotes »