“life beats down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one”

—  Stella Adler

Last update July 13, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "life beats down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one" by Stella Adler?
Stella Adler photo
Stella Adler 15
American actress and teaching coach 1901–1992

Related quotes

Cassandra Clare photo
Stephen King photo
Charles Bukowski photo
Emily Brontë photo

“And yet I cannot continue in this condition! I have to remind myself to breathe — almost to remind my heart to beat!”

Heathcliff (Ch. XXXIII).
Source: Wuthering Heights (1847)
Context: I have neither a fear, nor a presentiment, nor a hope of death. Why should I? With my hard constitution, and temperate mode of living, and unperilous occupations, I ought to, and probably shall remain above ground, till there is scarcely a black hair on my head. And yet I cannot continue in this condition! I have to remind myself to breathe — almost to remind my heart to beat! And it is like bending back a stiff spring — it is by compulsion that I do the slightest act, not prompted by one thought; and by compulsion that I notice anything alive or dead, which is not associated with one universal idea. I have a single wish, and my whole being and faculties are yearning to attain it. They have yearned towards it so long and so unwaveringly, that I’m convinced it will be reached — and soon — because it has devoured my existence. I am swallowed up in the anticipation of its fulfilment. My confessions have not relieved me — but they may account for some otherwise unaccountable phases of humour which I show. Oh, God! It's a long fight, I wish it were over!

Joseph Addison photo
Cassandra Clare photo
James Baldwin photo
Sarah Bakewell photo

“As Seneca put it, life does not pause to remind you that it is running out. The only one who can keep you mindful of this is you.”

Source: How to Live, or, A Life of Montaigne in one Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer (2010), p. 37.

Related topics