To lose confidence in one’s body is to lose confidence in oneself.
—Simone de Beauvoir, 1949
Archive
Quotes
It hurts to watch the fluency of a body acclimated to its shackling.
—Leslie Jamison, 2014Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.
—Oscar Wilde, 1890Flesh was the reason why oil painting was invented.
—Willem de Kooning, 1949I’m at an age when my back goes out more than I do.
—Phyllis Diller, 1981The human body is the best picture of the human soul.
—Ludwig Wittgenstein, c. 1947Celibacy goes deeper than the flesh.
—F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1920If I had the use of my body I would throw it out of the window.
—Samuel Beckett, 1951Every tooth in a man’s head is more valuable than a diamond.
—Miguel de Cervantes, 1605The body says what words cannot.
—Martha Graham, 1985The body is an instrument which only gives off music when it is used as a body.
—Anaïs Nin, 1935The world is made of the very stuff of the body.
—Maurice Merleau-Ponty, 1961O flesh, flesh, how art thou fishified!
—William Shakespeare, c. 1596