Narcissus Quotes:

Narcissus never wrote well nor was a friend.

- Edward Dahlberg

topic: Narcissus, Wells

Ingratitude' is the name which avatars of Narcissus give to the success of others.

- Jean Lorrain

source: Jean Lorrain (1994). “Monsieur de Phocas”, Hippocrene Books

topic: Names, Giving, Narcissus, Success Of Others

Our squalid society rushed, Narcissus to a man, to gaze on its trivial image on a scrap of metal.

- Charles Baudelaire

source: Charles Baudelaire, Jonathan Mayne (1981). “Art in Paris 1845-1862: salons and other exhibitions”

topic: Men, Narcissus, Metals

our friendship has no other purpose, no other reason, than to show you how utterly unlike me you are.

- Hermann Hesse

topic: Purpose, Reason, Narcissus

Narcissus does not fall in love with his reflection because it is beautiful, but because it is his. If it were his beauty that enthralled him, he would be set free in a few years by its fading.

- W. H. Auden

topic: Love, Beautiful, Fall, Narcissus

The lake was silent for some time. Finally, it said: "I weep for Narcissus, but I never noticed that Narcissus was beautiful. I weep because, each time he knelt beside my banks, I could see, in the depths of his eyes, my own beauty reflected.

- Paulo Coelho

topic: Beautiful, Eye, Lakes, Narcissus

Narcissus weeps to find that his Image does not return his love.

- Mason Cooley

topic: Doe, His Love, Return, Narcissist, Narcissus

They can romanticize us so, mirrors, and that is their secret: what a subtle torture it would be to destroy all the mirrors in the world: where then could we look for reassurance of our identities?

- Truman Capote

topic: Mirrors, Secret, Identity, Reassurance, Narcissus

In my garden the winds have beaten the ripe lilies; in my garden, the salt has wilted the first flakes of young narcissus.

- Hilda Doolittle

topic: Loss, Garden, Wind, Narcissus

That was one of the problems with the Narcissus figure. Here is a face looking at a face, and the problem is the image of the thing is never actually the thing. You try and grab it and it's not there. It's water. It disappears.

- Jane Alison

source: Source: therumpus.net

topic: Water, Trying, Faces, Narcissus

Narcissism and Christianity have little in common, yet the Romantic paradigm of artistic creativity, particularly in light of subsequent Freudian ideas, has tended to foster its share of narcissism. It was the tragic fate of Narcissus that he was so preoccupied with self that he could not appreciate God, nature, or the other.

- John Walford

topic: Creativity, Fate, Light, Narcissus, God Nature

Narcissus is the glory of his race: For who does nothing with a better grace?.

- Edward Young

source: 'Love of Fame: The Universal Passion' (1725-8) Satire 4, l. 86

topic: Race, Doe, Glory, Narcissus

He who has two cakes of bread, let him dispose of one of them for some flowers of the narcissus; for bread is the food of the body, and the narcissus is the food of the soul.

- Galen

source: "Arabian Society In The Middle Ages". Book by by Edward William Lane, 1883.

topic: Flower, Cake, Two, Narcissus

I brought a mirror to Lovers' Lane. I told everybody I'm Narcissus.

- Steven Wright

topic: Funny, Humor, Mirrors, Narcissus

It is not our purpose to become each other; it is to recognize each other, to learn to see the other and honor him for what he is.

- Hermann Hesse

topic: Motivational, Respect, Honor, Respect Each Other, Narcissus

Her lips are roses over-washed with dew, Or like the purple of Narcissus' flower; No frost their fair, no wind doth waste their power, But by her breath her beauties to renew.

- Robert Greene

topic: Flower, Wind, Purple, Narcissus

Why did the old Persians hold the sea holy? Why did the Greeks give it a separate deity, and own brother Jove? Surely all this is not without meaning. And still deeper the meaning of that story of Narcissus, who because he could not grasp the tormenting mild image he saw in the fountain, plunged into it and was drowned. But that same image, we ourselves see in all rivers and oceans. It is the image of the ungraspable phantom of life; and this is the key to it all.

- Herman Melville

topic: Brother, Ocean, Sea, Narcissus

If one finds oneself with bread in both hands, that person should exchange one loaf for some flowers of the narcissus, because the loaf feeds the body, but the flowers feed the soul.

- Nazr Mohammed

topic: Flower, Hands, Soul, Narcissus

What are you talking about?" Narcissus demanded. "I am amazing. Everyone knows this." "Amazing at pure suck," Leo said. "If I was as suck as you, I'd drown myself. Oh wait, you already did that.

- Rick Riordan

topic: Talking, Waiting, Said, Narcissus

Leaders of the Church have often been Narcissus, flattered and sickeningly excited by their courtiers. The court is the leprosy of the papacy.

- Pope Francis

topic: Leader, Church, Leprosy, Flattered, Narcissus

You cannot hammer a girl into anything. She grows as a flower does, she will wither without sun; she will decay in her sheath as a narcissus will if you do not give her air enough; she might fall and defile her head in dust if you leave her without help at some moments in her life; but you cannot fetter her; she must take her own fair form and way if she take any.

- John Ruskin

topic: Girl, Flower, Fall, Fetters, Narcissus

I read somewhere once that souls were like flowers,' said Priscilla. 'Then your soul is a golden narcissus,' said Anne, 'and Diana's is like a red, red rose. Jane's is an apple blossom, pink and wholesome and sweet.' 'And our own is a white violet, with purple streaks in its heart,' finished Priscilla.

- Lucy Maud Montgomery

topic: Sweet, Flower, Heart, Narcissus, Red Rose

Leo took out a pen and autographed the arm of one of the nymphs. “Narcissus is a loser! He’s so weak, he can’t bench-press a Kleenex. He’s so lame, when you look up lame on Wikipedia, it’s got a picture of Narcissus—only the picture’s so ugly, no one ever checks it out.

- Rick Riordan

topic: Nymphs, Ugly, Arms, Kleenex, Leo Valdez

I wonder if the course of narcissism through the ages would have been any different had Narcissus first peered into a cesspool. He probably did.

- Frank O'Hara

source: Frank O'Hara (1977). “Early writing”, Bookpeople

topic: Age, Different, Firsts, Narcissist, Narcissus

Nature is none other than God in all things.

- Giordano Bruno

source: "Elements of Pantheism". Book by Paul Harrison, 1999.

topic: Nature, Narcissus, Crocuses

We fitted together like the two halves of an oyster-shell. I was Narcissus, embracing the pond in which I was about to drown. However much we had to hide our love, however guarded we had to be about our pleasure, I could not long be miserable about a thing so very sweet. Nor, in my gladness, could I quite believe that anybody would be anything but happy for me if only they knew.

- Sarah Waters

topic: Sweet, Believe, Oysters, Narcissus

Stop!" Narcissus got to his feet. "This is not right! This person is obviously not awesome, so he must be..." He struggled for the right words. It had probably been a long time since he'd talked about anything other than himself. "He must be tricking us." Apparently Narcissus wasn't completely stupid.

- Rick Riordan

topic: Stupid, Feet, Long, Leo Valdez, Narcissus

When we are young we do not look into mirrors. It is when we are old, concerned with our name, our legend, what our lives will mean to the future. We become vain with the names we own, our claims to have been the first eyes, the strongest army, the cleverest merchant. It is when he is old that Narcissus wants a graven image of himself.

- Michael Ondaatje

source: Michael Ondaatje (2011). “The English Patient”, p.151, A&C Black

topic: Mean, Eye, Army, Narcissus

From that moment onwards, our loathsome society rushed, like Narcissus, to contemplate its trivial image on a metallic plate. A form of lunacy, an extraordinary fanaticism took hold of these new sun-worshippers.

- Charles Baudelaire

topic: Sun, Moments, Form, Metallic, Lunacy

Narcissus turned and scowled at Leo. “Who are you?” “I’m the Super-sized McShizzle, man!” Leo said. “I’m Leo Valdez, bad boy supreme. And the ladies love a bad boy.

- Rick Riordan

topic: Boys, Men, Bad Boy, Lady Love, Leo Valdez

Antiquity breached mortality with myths. Narcissus is vocabulary. Hermes decorates A cornice on the Third National Bank.

- Allen Tate

source: Allen Tate (2014). “Collected Poems, 1919-1976”, p.11, Macmillan

topic: Vocabulary, Mortality, Hermes, Narcissus

I've got six months to sort out the hackers, get the Japanese knotweed under control and find an acceptable form of narcissus.

- Jasper Fforde

source: Jasper Fforde (2003). “Lost in a Good Book”, Viking Adult

topic: Garden, Six Months, Hackers, Narcissus

To be an artist at all is like living in Switzerland during a world war. To be an artist in Zurich, in 1917, implies a degree of self-absorption that would have glazed over the eyes of Narcissus.

- Tom Stoppard

source: Tom Stoppard (2011). “Travesties”, p.45, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

topic: War, Eye, Artist, Zurich, Narcissus