Quotes About Ambivalence

Equally disquieting are the times when we do make a choice, only to later feel as though we have murdered some other aspect of our being by settling on one single concrete decision.

I still can't say whether I ever want children….I can only say how I feel now--grateful to be on my own. I also know that I won't go forth and have children just in case I might regret missing it later in life; I don't think this is a strong enough motivation to bring more babies onto the earth.

Venice is beautiful, but like a Bergman movie is beautiful; you can admire it, but you don't really want to live in it.

Let it be sufficient to say that, on this night, he was still my lighthouse and albatross in equal measure. The only thing more unthinkable than leaving was staying; the only thing more impossible than staying was leaving. I didn't want to destroy anything or anybody. I just wanted to slip quietly out the back door, without causing any fuss or consequences, and then not stop running until I reached Greenland.

I equal parts loved him and could not stand him. I couldn't wake him to share in my distress.

She felt simultaneously relieved and burdened: relieved of all her old questions; burdened by the answers.

Raising a child is the very definition of ambivalence. I am overwhelmed at times by how something can simultaneously be so awful and so rewarding.

Venice is beautiful, but like a Bergman movie is beautiful; you can admire it, but you don't really want to live in it.

I had wanted more, and I had not wanted more. A familiar old tale, from the lives of girls.

And I hate to disappoint you, but it's best you learn now: most marriages are neither heavenly nor hellish, but vaguely purgatorial.

he was still my lighthouse and my albatross in equal measure; the only thing more unthinkable than leaving was staying, the only thing more impossible than staying was leaving

how much he loved being alone except when he didn't, except when it got to be too much?

She thought she might like him if only he wouldn't so excessively like her.

As soon as I was out in the street, I realized I didn't want to be alone after all, I realized I didn't want to be anything at all.

I dont want to die, i dont want to live either.

I don't much like my life, but for some dumb reason, I want to be alive, because sooner or later, I figure it will work out.

And you know how it is with things that mean a lot to you. They get heavy. They drive you crazy. They make life worth living, they make life unliveable, you can't stay, you can't go, there's not enough tequila in all of Mexico to straighten out your mind, years go by and nothing ever changes. This face is one that will make you weak forever.

Here was all about the visible-invisible borders, the thin lines between here and gone, then and now, here and there, random and meant, big and small.

I didn't care much what happened to me, so chance didn't matter.

I don't do anything with my life except romanticize and decay with indecision.

You make me feel. And sometimes, I don't want to.

But what's going to haunt me more in the future- memories or regrets? I honestly do not know.

L'amore riunisce la certezza e il dubbio: si è sicuri di essere amati tanto quanto se ne dubita, e non a momenti alterni, ma in una simultaneità sconcertante. Provare a sbarazzarsi di questa sfumatura dubitativa facendo mille domande alla propria amata, significa negare la natura radicalmente ambigua dell'amore.

Marie n'éprouva rien, ni déception ni contentement. Elle aurait aimé qu'on lui explique quoi éprouver. Elle était fatiguée.