Man into Woman Quotes

“One is led to the conclusion that the one hundred per cent male and the one hundred per cent female are theoretical”
― Niels Hoyer, Lili: A Portrait of the First Sex Change

“If I had the strength, I would write and tell her [Grete] that I am progressing. She would come to me; but that I don't want. I am so lonely and so weak. But when I am most dejected, a letter comes from Claude; he is waiting for me--dear, dear Claude."

The shadows were closing round Lili Elbe. She wrote one more letter at the beginning of September. It was addressed to her sister.

"Now I know that death is near. Last night I dreamt about Mother. She took me in her arms and she called me Lili..and Father was also there.”
― Niels Hoyer, Lili: A Portrait of the First Sex Change

“I knew that I would never in any book find anything about people who were like me...... no poet had yet written about such a being, because it had never occurred to any poet that it could exist.”
― Lili Elbe, Man into Woman: The First Sex Change

“I don't want to be a phenomenon...... I want to
be a quite normal and ordinary woman.”
― Lili Elbe, Man into Woman: The First Sex Change

“One is led to the conclusion that the one hundred per cent male and the one hundred per cent female are theoretical types which do not exist in reality.”
― Lili Elbe, Lili: A Portrait of the First Sex Change

“It is also for those who wish to understand more of the human spirit; what strengths we have as individuals to search for and find our true selves, whatever the risk and possible dangers. To those of you who wish to support us on a similar quest today, Lili’s journey from Man to Woman is essential reading in order to understand our search for who we really are.”
― Lili Elbe, Lili: A Portrait of the First Sex Change

“His ultimate hope was to die in order that Lili might awaken to a new life.”
― Lili Elbe, Lili: A Portrait of the First Sex Change

“She had become Grete’s favourite model. Lili wandered through her best works.”
― Lili Elbe, Lili: A Portrait of the First Sex Change

“He gave me a new German translation of the Bible and opened it to the first page. There I read again and again:
'Und die Erde war Wirrnis und Wüste. Finsternis allüber Abgrund. Braus Gottes brütend allüber den Wassern.'
It could have been written about me, I thought. I thought that the beginning had been like this and I kept on hearing these words sound in my heart.”
― Lili Elbe, Lili: A Portrait of the First Sex Change

“I am like someone who is building a bridge. But it is no ordinary bridge. On one bank I stand ...... That is the present and there I have already driven in the first poles. And from this bank I am going to build my bridge, floating in space toward the other bank that I often see not at all and otherwise only see as in a fog. Only now and then I see it quite clearly in my dreams. And then I do not know if this bank means the past or the future. This question then awakes in me: Have I only had a past or have I not had any past at all, or do I only have a future and no past?”
― Lili Elbe, Lili: A Portrait of the First Sex Change

“All other women were allowed to be ugly, to be hideous, to have all kinds of defects and flaws in their appearance. But I had to be pretty; if I did not look good, I had lost any right to exist, to be a woman ......”
― Lili Elbe, Man into Woman: The First Sex Change

“Yes, I am as one who tries to sail against the current up over a waterfall, and I feel that the current has grabbed me and overpowered me ...... I no longer know where it leads me ...... perhaps towards complete destruction ...... and yet I cannot get off the boat now that I am halfway, the decision has been made ...... there is no turning back.”
― Lili Elbe, Lili: A Portrait of the First Sex Change

“Yes, I am as one who tries to sail against the current up over a waterfall, and I feel that the current has grabbed me and overpowered me ...... I no longer know where it leads me ...... perhaps towards complete destruction ...... and
yet I cannot get off the boat now that I am halfway, the decision has been made ......
there is no turning back.”
― Lili Elbe, Lili: A Portrait of the First Sex Change

“It is too wonderful to think that Lili will be able to live, and that she will be the happiest girl in the world—and that this ghastly nightmare of my life is drawing to an end. This wretched comedy as a man!”
― Lili Elbe, Man into Woman: The First Sex Change

“A human being who was born a man, who was my husband, my friend, my comrade – has now become a woman, a complete woman. And this human being was never intended to be anything but a woman.”
― Lili Elbe, Lili: A Portrait of the First Sex Change

“Hermes, the darling of the gods, had a son, and Aphrodite, the divine beauty, a daughter. The two children were perfect models of beauty. Yet they had never seen each other before when one day they confronted each other in the Wood of the Gods. The girl was immediately enamoured of the boy; but the boy fled from her. However fast she ran after him, he ran faster still. In despair the divine maiden turned to Zeus and bewailed to him her love torment. ‘I love him, father, but he has fled from me. He will have nothing to do with me. Oh, father, grant that I become one with him.’ And Zeus heard the prayer of the divine child, and he raised his arm, and the next moment the shy son of Hermes stood before the Olympian, and Aphrodite’s daughter shouted with glee and embraced the trembling youngster. Again Zeus raised his arm – whereupon both melted into each other. When Hermes and Aphrodite sought after their children, they found a blissfully smiling divine child. ‘It is my son!’ cried Hermes. ‘No, it is my daughter!’ cried Aphrodite. They were both right.”
― Lili Elbe, Lili: A Portrait of the First Sex Change

“Each step forwards to become the person we are makes it harder to go backwards, to return to the shadowy, private world of closed doors and shuttered windows. The experience, the awakening of one’s true self, after being so long suppressed, can never be adequately explained with language”
― Lili Elbe, Lili: A Portrait of the First Sex Change

“grand”
― Lili Elbe, Lili: A Portrait of the First Sex Change

“Whereas he felt tired and seemed to welcome death, Lili was joyous and in the freshness of youth.”
― Lili Elbe, Lili: A Portrait of the First Sex Change