“I could bear the memory, but I could not bear the music that made the memory such a killing thing.”

“Memory says, 'I did that.' Pride replies, 'I could not have done that.' Eventually, memory yields.”

“I hid my love when young till I
Couldn't bear the buzzing of a fly;
I hid my love to my despite
Till I could not bear to look at light:
I dare not gaze upon her face
But left her memory in each place;
Where eer I saw a wild flower lie
I kissed and bade my love good bye.”

“At first I was almost about to despair, I thought I never could bear it — but I did bear it. The question remains: how?”

“I never could bear the idea of anyone's expecting something from me. It
always made me want to do just the opposite.”

“I could scarcely bear to look at her eyes. They promised such intimacies.”

“It was not apathy. It was an intelligent disinterest in those things that could have no bearing on one's existence.”

“I generally answered to myself, that I did not think I could possibly bear it beyond a year.”

“The food that memory gives to eat is bitter to the taste, and it is only with the teeth of hope that we can bear to bite it.”

“I strive to make my art bear the same relation to painting that polyphony bears to music. Illustrative music is a thing of the past: it has become abstract and purely aesthetic, dependent for its effect upon rhythm and form.”