Introspection Quotes

“someone was singing
and he was alone.
for us, you wrote yourself
in small letters
so we wouldn’t know.

from the bitterness of blood,
from the nights of the eagles,
that music began,
but we couldn’t hear it.

the grapes are calling
their wine,
the stranger. (...)”
― Monica Laura Rapeanu, Orbul de la Cină

“I don't know why
time
is dancing now
before us
soft and sandy
like the poets' women.
it wants me in all songs.
maybe you'd take me in for a moment
to your Andalusia
where today
no one has died.”
― Monica Laura Rapeanu, Orbul de la Cină

“C10 (or the king's carolers – from student times)

on the side stairway, we gather in the evening, many
the cold cement steps welcome us
as if we were the king's carolers
we have mulled wine and dry snacks
the orange guitar stretches and warps in the candlelight
we take another drag from the cigarette, nibble on sticks and salty biscuits
happiness pricks our veins with Burmese nails

One floor below, behind the door 'Mr. Blues - Don't Disturb'
the tasty rot of jazz caresses our toes
We sin in thought, our minds dangling from the railing

later, the Serbs come to sing with us
Golden-haired like gods from a bombed country
we scratch the wall with our nails, don’t know what to say
they bring us wafers with fruits and chocolate
wrapped in green foil

the second evening we gather again on the side stairway
with the same mulled wine and dry snacks
and the same us

the old rockers hanging heavy on the guitar’s body
at the midnight office.”
― Monica Laura Rapeanu, Orbul de la Cină

“the old ones
hold their kiss
in stones.”
― Monica Laura Rapeanu, Orbul de la Cină

“All she wanted was
A luminous fish,
One she could never fish.”
― Monica Laura Rapeanu, The Void That Reflects Your Beauty

“You were beautiful
when you tried to paint
what you didn’t know was torn
from an older painting.

No one understood
your eyes were never meant
to be unveiled—
for no one has known you
since the beginning of the world.”
― Monica Laura Rapeanu, The Void That Reflects Your Beauty

“I watched you from behind my solitude,
It was like watching an icon
painted in the most beautiful moment
of my life.”
― Monica Laura Rapeanu, The Void That Reflects Your Beauty

“I wanted to lay
on the empty shore of our season
and cover my hair
with the grey sand of memories.
But I began to slowly slip away,
as the summer turned
into autumn.”
― Monica Laura Rapeanu, The Void That Reflects Your Beauty

“There is so much love in a sunset,
Descending from this world
In quiet worship.”
― Monica Laura Rapeanu, The Void That Reflects Your Beauty

“Everything in my life unravels, thread by thread, yet I smile as if I'm weaving a masterpiece. I wait patiently for the day when all of it—my triumphs, my failures, even my name—dissolves into nothing, as if none of it ever mattered at all.”
― Jonathan Harnisch, Second Alibi: The Banality of Life

“I am learning the pathways of the heart, Eleanor thought quite seriously, and then wondered what she could have meant by thinking any such thing.”
― Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House

“So much of who we are is who we cannot be. We flatter ourselves when we think we can become something entirely new.”
― Colum McCann, Twist

“In the rush of daily routines, don't forget to pause and rediscover yourself.”
― Mr. Bilal Mukhtar

“Orion's Question and the Breath of Frost'
.
.

Tonight, the horizon folds into itself, an old envelope sealed with frost. The earth leans ever so slightly, tilting its tired shoulder toward the sun as if apologizing for the distance. Above, Cassiopeia sprawls, half-reclining, her jeweled wrists dripping with the cold light of stars that have died a thousand times since we first gave them names. Her gaze cuts through the dark, dismissive and haunted all at once—what does she know that I do not?

I stood beneath the canopy of brittle air, the breath of a wind too faint to matter pressing against my ear. The stillness of the season lodged itself deep, threading through marrow and thought alike. A single crow flew low across the yard, its wings shearing the quiet, and I realized this silence was not still, not empty. It swelled, pressed, expanded—an ache without center, scattering itself like seeds into the pit of me.

For a moment, I thought I heard it—a hum, soft and glacial, as if the world itself were breathing from a great, aching hollow. I looked up and imagined Orion not as hunter but witness, the burning points of his form arranged into questions I could never answer. When I turned back toward the house, frost had etched a secret on the windowpane, its meaning almost within reach but blurred, as though by a single trembling hand.”
― Monika Ajay Kaul

“Orion's Question and the Breath of Frost'
.
.
Tonight, the horizon folds into itself, an old envelope sealed with frost. The earth leans ever so slightly, tilting its tired shoulder toward the sun as if apologizing for the distance. Above, Cassiopeia sprawls, half-reclining, her jeweled wrists dripping with the cold light of stars that have died a thousand times since we first gave them names. Her gaze cuts through the dark, dismissive and haunted all at once...
What does she know that I do not!?

I stood beneath the canopy of brittle air, the breath of a wind too muffled to matter pressing against my ear. The quietude of the season lodged itself deep, threading through marrow and thought alike. Somewhere distant, the faint call of an owl spilled across the night, shearing the imperturbable, and I realized this lull was not still, not empty. It swelled, pressed, expanded... an ache without center, scattering itself like seeds into the pit of me.

For a moment, I thought I heard it... a hum, soft and glacial, as if the world itself were breathing from a great, aching hollow. I looked up and imagined Orion not as hunter but witness, the burning points of his form arranged into questions I could never answer. When I turned back toward the house, frost had etched a secret on the windowpane, its meaning almost within reach but blurred, as though by a single trembling hand.”
― Monika Ajay Kaul

“She promised me that she would always be there—whenever I needed her, no matter what. She said she wouldn’t let me fall into this darkness, and that she would always be my light. But now, here I am, swallowed whole by that very darkness, and it feels so much colder without her. It’s ironic, really. The one person I needed the most, the one person who could have pulled me out of this hell, is the reason I’m in this place at all.”
― Deepanshu Tomar, The End of the Spring: Because some Love Stories transcend time

“Chefs add more ingredients as they cook, you know. We’re not all put together at once. Consider your soul one of the ingredients eventually added. And, just because the ingredients are there, doesn't mean we must go through with putting that celestial mix into the oven. God allows us the free will to bake our cake of destiny another time. Perhaps that timeless ingredient, the soul, is placed into another chef's recipe somewhere in fate and time—who will look into your little eyes with delight. There are times when the cake isn't baking properly, so the oven is paused—the baking stopped. Other times, the chef has a lot going on and decides not to bake the cake today, and that's ok. For, there is more to life than just baking a cake, as the chef is more than just a chef. She is a person too.”
― Jasmine McMorran

“A mind that does not question its own thoughts is a prisoner of itself.”
― Unknown

“Wars don't end, he thought suddenly. They become stories, told to children. They become causes that are taken up by those who were not even born when the war started. But the don't end.
We are a fierce race, we men. We will give up even our short, precious lives for revenge---no, for justice. No wonder the immortals fear us.”
― Tad Williams, The Heart of What Was Lost

“Wars don't end, he thought suddenly. They become stories, told to children. They become causes that are taken up by those who were not even born when the war started. But they don't end.
We are a fierce race, we men. We will give up even our short, precious lives for revenge---no, for justice. No wonder the immortals fear us.”
― Tad Williams, The Heart of What Was Lost

“I’m just a Reflection of you”
― MashhoodAliTalpur

“The only realm where true change begins is within; all else is a ripple of that first courage.”
― Monika Ajay Kaul

“می دانید وقتی شما منکر همه چیز شدید، به زودی به عنوان یک آدم عاقل شهرت پیدا می کنید. نیرنگ خوبی است. مردم ساده لوح فورا نتیجه می گیرند که شما از آن چیزی که انکار می کنید برتر هستید. ولی اغلب این امر صحیح نیست. اولا شما ممکن است در هر چیزی عیبی پیدا کنید. در ثانی اگر حقیقت را هم بگویید برای خودتان بدتر است، زیرا وقتی عقل شما صرفا گرفتار نفی کردن باشد فقیر می شود و می خشکد. در عین اینکه حس خودخواهی خود را ارضا می کنید، از لذت واقعی تعمق و اندیشه محروم می شوید. زندگی- ماهیت زندگی- از اندیشه ی ناچیز و سودایی شما می گریزد و کار شما به این جا می کشد که عوعو کنید و مردم را بخندانید.”
― Ivan Turgenev, Rudin

“ولی اگر نمی توانی یک جا بمانی، نه برای این است که به گفته ی خودت، کرمی درون توست که تو را می جود... نه کرمی در وجود توست و نه روح تنبلی داری. آتش عشق به حقیقت در وجود تو شعله ور است و ظاهرا این آتش، با وجود همه ی ایرادهایت، در تو بسیار نیرومندتر از آن هایی است که خود را خودخواه نمی دانند، ولی احتمالا تو را فتنه گر می نامند.”
― Ivan Turgenev, Rudin

“Once, on a work trip, I’d been put up at Le Bristol, in Paris. As I walked around the suite I began to weep. The wallpaper had pink roses and the carpet and curtains had pink roses and the bed was a beautiful bosom you’d never want to leave. Gilt mirrors, a small marble-topped table, a pair of little Louis XIV chairs gathered in a place where you might want to read a poem. The stationery, the robe, the lotion—each of these things was thicker and more exquisite than I’d previously been aware existed. I began to panic—how would I live after this, now knowing?

And then I became angry. Not at the fundamental injustice of luxuries built for an elite minority, no, just that I was only staying for two nights. In the end it was fine. I savored each meal, I took pictures like a dumb tourist, and when the time came to leave I mutely accepted my return to civilian life.

I didn’t get to keep the paintings I saw at the Louvre, either.”
― Miranda July, All Fours

“Growth shapes us, wisdom refines us, but only those we let in will ever grasp the depth of our transformation.”
― D'los Ángeles

“I navigate life unfeignedly, with a heart that speaks in truths, a mind that seeks depth, and a soul unafraid of the weight of its own story.”
― D'los Ángeles

“Let me thrive in the little endeavors. But ours is where the universe expands.”
― Rafael J. Davila

“The words grew large in the night air, kept expanding, until I felt they were important beyond measure.
"How did the world get this way?"
"I don't know. Because of people, Borne. We did this to ourselves." We were still doing it to ourselves.”
― Jeff VanderMeer, Borne

“The world is so big, Rachel," Borne had said to me. "It just keeps going and going."
"It ends eventually." I almost said, "It gets smaller," but bit my tongue.”
― Jeff VanderMeer, Borne