Yōko Ogawa book The Diving Pool: Three Novellas
Source: The Diving Pool: Three Novellas
Yōko Ogawa book The Diving Pool: Three Novellas
Source: The Diving Pool: Three Novellas
“let me
have a look inside these eyes while I'm learning
please don't hide them just because of tears”
Natalie Merchant (1963) American singer-songwriter
Song lyrics, Blind Man's Zoo (1989), Trouble Me
“You'd be amazed at the pain and tears a single smile hides.”
Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist
Source: Acheron
François de La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680) French author of maxims and memoirs
Il ne faut pas s’offenser que les autres nous cachent la vérité puisque nous nous la cachons si souvent à nous-mêmes.
Maxim 11 from the Manuscrit de Liancourt.
Later Additions to the Maxims
Paul Laurence Dunbar book The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar
We Wear The Mask, in the 1913 collection of his work, The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar.
Context: We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.
Why should the world be over-wise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.
We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask!
Eric Hoffer book The True Believer
Section 100
The True Believer (1951), Part Three: United Action and Self-Sacrifice
“The tongue may hide the truth but the eyes—never!”
Mikhail Bulgakov book The Master and Margarita
Book One in 'Nikanor Ivanovich's Dream', B/O
Variant: The tongue can conceal the truth, but the eyes never!
Source: The Master and Margarita (1967)
Context: The tongue can conceal the truth, but the eyes never! You're asked an unexpected question, you don't even flinch, it takes just a second to get yourself under control, you know just what you have to say to hide the truth, and you speak very convincingly, and nothing in your face twitches to give you away. But the truth, alas, has been disturbed by the question, and it rises up from the depths of your soul to flicker in your eyes and all is lost.
“An option hides where we don't want it to hide.”
Nassim Nicholas Taleb book Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder
Source: Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder (2012), p. 184