Sal

“I believe that the Unutterable and the Incomprehensible are two faces of a double idea, a hermaphrodite idea. Everything that is ugly, unjust, fierce, base, emanates from the Male Principle.
Everything unbearably lovely and desirable emanates from the Female Principle. The two principles are equally powerful and hate one another incurably. In the end, one will exterminate the other, but which will be the
final victor? That riddle is the perpetual anguish of all souls. We hope in
silence for the decisive triumph of the Female Principle, the Good and the
Beautiful, over the Male, that is, over Bestial Force and Cruelty.”
― Renée Vivien, A Woman Appeared to Me

“Читання — це вада, яка може стати на місце всіх інших вад, або іноді замість них інтенсивно сприяти всім жити, це — відхилення, манія, що поглинає. Ні, наркотиків я не вживаю, вживаю книжки, безсумнівно, я маю свої вподобання, багато книжок залишають мене байдужою, деякі з них я вживаю лиш зранку, інші — тільки вночі, є книжки, від яких відірватись не можу, з ними ходжу по квартирі, переношу з кімнати до кухні, читаю навстоячки в коридорі, не користуюсь закладками, не ворушу при читанні вустами, читати навчилась я дуже рано і дуже добре..”
― Ingeborg Bachmann, Malina

“Ugly, degrading, rather terrible half-truths... It is bad for the soul to know itself a coward, it is apt to take refuge in mere wordy violence... Their hearts ached while their lips formed recriminations. Their hearts burst into tears while their eyes remained dry and accusing, staring in hostility and anger... They could not forgive and they could not sleep, for neither could sleep without the other's forgiveness, and the hatred that leapt out at moments between them would be drowned in the tears that their hearts were shedding.”
― Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness

“How should I receive her when she appeared? I would say nothing, I would walk toward her and stare into the depths of her eyes at her cruel blonde soul. She would be overcome by my silence and my calm. Then, coldly, resolutely, I would strangle her. That would be ugly, brutal, savage, but it would be a brief nightmare, and in the joy of the mystic murder, I would stretch her out on the divan covered in the green of a mossy bank. I would spread about her head the halo of her pale hair. I would fill her hands with white lilies and scatter her body with her favorite roses-white with a tinge of green. She would slumber, only a bit more pale than in her regular sleep. And I would love her in that superhuman hour more than any other being had ever dared to love. That would be madness with its exaltations and its terrors and its aftermath. I would watch beside her until dawn. I would see the taper-flames waver. The deep blue of midnight would fill the corners with shadow. Vally's lids would grow strangely blue. And I would shout aloud as a man does when drunk: I have killed her! Then she would remain forever my virgin Priestess. She would be the pure whiteness of my dreams, the Inaccessible, the Untarnishable. I would have saved her in saving myself.”
― Renée Vivien, A Woman Appeared to Me