The Plumed Serpent Quotes

“Used to all kinds of society, she watched people as one reads the pages of a novel, with a certain disinterested amusement.”
― D.H. Lawrence, The Plumed Serpent

“I have a very great fear of love. It is so personal. Let each bird fly with its own wings, and each fish swim its own course.—Morning brings more than love. And I want to be true to the morning.”
― D.H. Lawrence, The Plumed Serpent

“In the depths of him, he too didn't want to go. But he was a born American, and if anything was on show, he had to see it. That was Life.”
― D.H. Lawrence, The Plumed Serpent

“I love the word Quetzalcoatl.'
'The word!' he repeated.
His eyes laughed at her teasingly all the time.
'What do you think, Mrs Leslie,' cried the pale-faced young Mirabal, in curiously resonant English, with a French accent. 'Don't you think it would be wonderful if the gods came back to Mexico? our own gods?' He sat in intense expectation, his blue eyes fixed on Kate's face, his soup-spoon suspended.
Kate's face was baffled with incomprehension.
'Not those Aztec horrors!' she said.
'The Aztec horrors! The Aztec horrors! Well, perhaps they were not so horrible after all. But if they were, it was because the Aztecs were all tied up. They were in a cul de sac, so they saw nothing but death. Don't you think so?'
'I don't know enough!' said Kate.
'Nobody knows any more. But if you like the word Quetzalcoatl, don't you think it would be wonderful if he came back again? Ah, the names of the gods! Don't you think the names are like seeds, so full of magic, of the unexplored magic? Huitzilopochtli!--how wonderful! And Tlaloc! Ah! I love them! I say them over and over, like they say Mani padma Om! in Tibet. I believe in the fertility of sound. Itzpapalotl--the Obsidian Butterfly! Itzpapalotl! But say it, and you will see it does good to your soul. Itzpapalotl! Tezcatlipocá! They were old when the Spaniards came, they needed the bath of life again. But now, re-bathed in youth, how wonderful they must be!”
― D.H. Lawrence, The Plumed Serpent

“There is no such thing as liberty. The greatest liberators are usually slaves of an idea. The freest people are slaves to convention and public opinion, and more still, slaves to the industrial machine. There is no such thing as liberty. You only change one sort of domination for another. All we can do is to choose our master.”
― D.H. Lawrence, The Plumed Serpent

“There is no such thing as liberty,' she heard the quiet, deep, dangerous voice of Don Ramón repeating. 'There is no such thing as liberty. The greatest liberators are usually slaves of an idea. The freest people are slaves to convention and public opinion, and more still, slaves to the industrial machine. There is no such thing as liberty. You only change one sort of domination for another. All we can do is to choose our master.”
― D.H. Lawrence, The Plumed Serpent

“From the first instant, Kate respected her for her isolation and her dauntless. The world is made up of a mass of people and a few individuals. Mrs. Norris was one of the few individuals. True, she played her social game all the time. But she was an odd number; and all alone, she could give the even numbers a bad time.”
― D.H. Lawrence, The Plumed Serpent

“Continuaré tirando pan al agua; y si mis hijos vuelven algún día, seré feliz.”
― D.H. Lawrence, The Plumed Serpent

“Talvez fosse isto, a América… O grande continente da morte, o continente que destrói o que os outros construíram. O continente que luta apenas por arrancar os olhos da face de Deus…”
― D.H. Lawrence, The Plumed Serpent

“A Universidade era um edifício de estilo espanhol, construído expressamente para aquele fim, havendo a decoração sido confiada a artistas jovens. […] No entanto, o único artista de valor já não era rapaz e fizera longo aprendizado na Europa.
Kate vira reproduções dalguns frescos de Ribera. [Diogo Rivera] Agora apreciava os originais nos claustros da Universidade. Eram interessantes: o homem sabia do ofício.
Mas a inspiração provinha do ódio latente no artista. Em muitas pinturas de índios notava-se a sua simpatia por estes, mas sempre num aspecto idealista e social. Nunca o impulso espontâneo que vem do sangue. Esses índios constituíam o símbolo do socialismo moderno, figuras patéticas das vítimas da indústria actual e do capitalismo. Eis o que representavam: símbolos da cansada literatura socialista e anarquista.”
― D.H. Lawrence, The Plumed Serpent

“-Tudo a oprime no México? – acrescentou ele, um tanto receoso mas com uma pontinha de ironia, voltando para Kate um rosto ingénuo e perturbado, em que se notava o peso da idade e das canseiras.
-Quase tudo! Tudo me estarrece. Até os olhos desses homens de chapeirão, a quem chamam peóns. Os seus olhos não se fixam em nada, os desses belos rapazes, que parecem ausentes debaixo dos seus grandes chapéus. Olhos sem centro, sem pupilas; apenas buraco negro, tal o meio de um sorvedouro.”
― D.H. Lawrence, The Plumed Serpent

“Alívio por ter saído enfim daquele local de horrores, alívio até por se afastar desse homem amável. Amabilíssimo. Mas a verdade é que não se sentia bem na sua presença. Emanava dele tal fatalidade sombria particularmente mexicana, que tanto a acabrunhava.”
― D.H. Lawrence, The Plumed Serpent

“But if you like the word Quetzalcoatl, don't you think it would be wonderful if he came back again? Ah, the names of the gods! Don't you think the names are like seeds, so full of magic, of the unexplored magic? Huitzilopochtli!--how wonderful! And Tlaloc! Ah! I love them! I say them over and over, like they say Mani padma Om! in Tibet. I believe in the fertility of sound. Itzpapalotl--the Obsidian Butterfly! Itzpapalotl! But say it, and you will see it does good to your soul. Itzpapalotl! Tezcatlipocá! They were old when the Spaniards came, they needed the bath of life again. But now, re-bathed in youth, how wonderful they must be! Think of Jehovah! Jehovah! Think of Jesus Christ! How thin and poor they sound! Or Jesús Cristo! They are dead names, all the life withered out of them. Ah, it is time now for Jesus to go back to the place of the death of the gods, and take the long bath of being made young again. He is an old-old young god, don't you think?' He looked long at Kate, then dived for his soup. Kate widened her eyes in amazement at this torrent from the young Mirabal. Then she laughed. 'I think it's a bit overwhelming!' she said, non-committal. 'Ah! Yes! Exactly! Exactly! But how good to be overwhelmed! How splendid if something will overwhelm me! Ah, I am so glad!”
― D.H. Lawrence, The Plumed Serpent