Quotes from book
The Awakening

Kate Chopin
Kate Chopin photo

“Goodbye -- Because I love you.”

Kate Chopin book The Awakening

Source: The Awakening

Kate Chopin photo

“She could only realize that she herself — her present self — was in some way different from the other self. That she was seeing with different eyes.”

Kate Chopin book The Awakening

The Awakening (1899)

Kate Chopin photo

“He could see plainly that she was not herself. That is, he could not see that she was becoming herself and daily casting aside that fictitious self which we assume like a garment with which to appear before the world.”

Kate Chopin book The Awakening

Source: The Awakening

Kate Chopin photo

“There was no despondency when she fell asleep that night; nor was there hope when she awoke in the morning.”

Kate Chopin book The Awakening

Source: The Awakening (1899)

Kate Chopin photo

“There was a dull pang of regret because it was not the kiss of love which had inflamed her, because it was not love which had held this cup of life to her lips.”

Kate Chopin book The Awakening

Source: The Awakening

Kate Chopin photo

“There are some people who leave impressions not so lasting as the imprint of an oar upon the water.”

Kate Chopin book The Awakening

Source: The Awakening

Kate Chopin photo

“She was becoming herself and daily casting aside that fictitious self which we assume like a garment with which to appear before the world.”

Kate Chopin book The Awakening

Source: The Awakening (1899)

Kate Chopin photo

“To be an artist includes much; one must possess many gift -absolute gifts- which have not been acquired by one's effort. And, moreover, to succeed, the artist must possess the courageous soul.”

Kate Chopin book The Awakening

Source: The Awakening

Kate Chopin photo

“I would give up the unessential; I would give up my money, I would give up my life for my children; but I wouldn't give myself. I can't make it more clear; it's only something I am beginning to comprehend, which is revealing itself to me.”

Kate Chopin book The Awakening

Source: The Awakening

Kate Chopin photo

“A certain light was beginning to dawn dimly within her,—the light which, showing the way, forbids it.”

Kate Chopin book The Awakening

Source: The Awakening

Kate Chopin photo

“Who can tell what metals the gods use in forging the subtle bond which we call sympathy, which we might as well call love.”

Kate Chopin book The Awakening

Source: The Awakening

Kate Chopin photo

“The voice of the sea is seductive; never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander for a spell in abysses of solitude; to lose itself in mazes of inward contemplation.”

Kate Chopin book The Awakening

Source: The Awakening (1899)

Kate Chopin photo

“The city atmosphere certainly has improved her. Some way she doesn't seem like the same woman.”

Kate Chopin book The Awakening

Source: The Awakening

Kate Chopin photo

“The voice of the sea speaks to the soul.”

Kate Chopin book The Awakening

Source: The Awakening

Kate Chopin photo

“I don't mind walking. I always feel so sorry for women who don't like to walk; they miss so much--so many rare little glimpses of life; and we women learn so little of life on the whole.”

Kate Chopin book The Awakening

Source: The Awakening

Kate Chopin photo

“Perhaps it is better to wake up after all, even to suffer, rather than to remain a dupe to illusions all one's life.”

Kate Chopin book The Awakening

The Awakening (1899)
Source: The Awakening, and Selected Stories
Context: The years that are gone seem like dreams -if one might go on sleeping and dreaming- but to wake up and find -oh! well! perhaps it is better to wake up after all, even to suffer, rather than to remain a dupe to illusions all ones life.

Kate Chopin photo

“It was not despair, but it seemed to her as if life were passing by, leaving its promises broken and unfulfilled. Yet there were other days when she listened, was led on and deceived by fresh promises which her youth had held out to her.”

Kate Chopin book The Awakening

Source: The Awakening

Kate Chopin photo

“She's got some sort of notion in her head concerning the eternal rights of women.”

Kate Chopin book The Awakening

Source: The Awakening

Kate Chopin photo

“The bird that would soar above the plane of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings. It is a sad spectacle to see the weaklings bruised, exhausted, fluttering back to earth.”

Kate Chopin book The Awakening

Source: The Awakening (1899)

Similar authors

Kate Chopin photo
Kate Chopin49
American author 1850–1904
Mark Twain photo
Mark Twain637
American author and humorist None
Ellen G. White photo
Ellen G. White48
American author and founder/leader of the Seventh-Day Adven… None
Fyodor Dostoyevsky photo
Fyodor Dostoyevsky155
Russian author None
Jules Renard photo
Jules Renard1
French author (1864-1910) None
Friedrich Engels photo
Friedrich Engels87
German social scientist, author, political theorist, and ph… None
Orison Swett Marden photo
Orison Swett Marden16
American writer None
Edgar Allan Poe photo
Edgar Allan Poe126
American author, poet, editor and literary critic None
Hans Christian Andersen photo
Hans Christian Andersen41
Danish author, fairy tale writer, and poet None
Charles Spurgeon photo
Charles Spurgeon49
British preacher, author, pastor and evangelist None