21 Sylvia Plath Impactful Quotes on Literature and Life

Discover profound Sylvia Plath quotes revealing deeper meanings about life, love, and death. Sylvia Plath, an influential American poet and novelist renowned for her confessional poetry, remains a key figure in 20th-century literature despite her tumultuous life.

Her unique ability to delve into profound emotional depth is evident in works addressing complex themes like identity, love, mental illness, and societal expectations.

“The Bell Jar,” Plath’s semi-autobiographical novel, significantly contributed to her popularity. It resonated with readers by detailing the protagonist’s struggles with mental illness, offering a poignant exploration of women’s challenges in the 1950s.

Celebrated as a feminist icon, Plath’s works, especially the posthumously published collection “Ariel,” powerfully express the female experience, challenging traditional gender roles.

Plath’s enduring popularity is reflected in the ongoing study of her poems in schools and universities globally. She remains a subject of biographical and critical writing.

Explore the impactful Sylvia Plath quotes presented here for inspiration and challenge!

Sylvia Plath Quotes

“I can never read all the books I want; I can never be all the people I want and live all the lives I want. I can never train myself in all the skills I want. And why do I want? I want to live and feel all the shades, tones and variations of mental and physical experience possible in my life. And I am horribly limited.”- Sylvia Plath

“I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart. I am, I am, I am.” – Sylvia Plath

“If you expect nothing from somebody you are never disappointed.” – Sylvia Plath

“And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” – Sylvia Plath

“Kiss me, and you will see how important I am.” – Sylvia Plath

“I felt my lungs inflate with the onrush of scenery—air, mountains, trees, people. I thought, “This is what it is to be happy.” – Sylvia Plath

“Perhaps when we find ourselves wanting everything, it is because we are dangerously close to wanting nothing.” – Sylvia Plath

“I have the choice of being constantly active and happy or introspectively passive and sad. Or I can go mad by ricocheting in between.” – Sylvia Plath

“The silence depressed me. It wasn’t the silence of silence. It was my own silence.” – Sylvia Plath

“I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;I lift my eyes and all is born again.” – Sylvia Plath

“let me live, love, and say it well in good sentences” – Sylvia Plath

“Remember, remember, this is now, and now, and now. Live it, feel it, cling to it. I want to become acutely aware of all I’ve taken for granted.” – Sylvia Plath

“I desire the things that will destroy me in the end.” – Sylvia Plath

“Is there no way out of the mind?” – Sylvia Plath

“I like people too much or not at all. I’ve got to go down deep, to fall into people, to really know them.” – Sylvia Plath

“The trouble was, I had been inadequate all along, I simply hadn’t thought about it.” – Sylvia Plath

“We should meet in another life, we should meet in air, me and you.” – Sylvia Plath

“I talk to God but the sky is empty.” – Sylvia Plath

“There is nothing like puking with somebody to make you into old friends.” – Sylvia Plath

“To the person in the bell jar, blank and stopped as a dead baby, the world itself is a bad dream.” – Sylvia Plath

“I felt very still and empty, the way the eye of a tornado must feel, moving dully along in the middle of the surrounding hullabaloo.” – Sylvia Plath

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