Narcissus Quotes

“The alchemist picked up a book that someone in the caravan had brought. Leafing through the pages, he found a story about Narcissus.

The alchemist knew the legend of Narcissus, a youth who knelt daily beside a lake to contemplate his own beauty. He was so fascinated by himself that, one morning, he fell into the lake and drowned. At the spot where he fell, a flower was born, which was called the narcissus.

But this was not how the author of the book ended the story.

He said that when Narcissus died, the goddesses of the forest appeared and found the lake, which had been fresh water, transformed into a lake of salty tears.

'Why do you weep?' the goddesses asked.

'I weep for Narcissus," the lake replied.

'Ah, it is no surprise that you weep for Narcissus,' they said, 'for though we always pursued him in the forest, you alone could contemplate his beauty close at hand.'

'But... was Narcissus beautiful?' the lake asked.

'Who better than you to know that?' the goddesses asked in wonder. 'After all, it was by your banks that he knelt each day to contemplate himself!'

The lake was silent for some time. Finally, it said:

'I weep for Narcissus, but I never noticed that Narcissus was beautiful. I weep because, each time he knelt beside my banks, I could see, in the depths of his eyes, my own beauty reflected.'

'What a lovely story,' the alchemist thought.”
― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

“What are you talking about?" Narcissus demanded. "I am amazing. Everyone knows this."
"Amazing at pure suck," Leo said. "If I was as suck as you, I'd drown myself. Oh wait, you already did that.”
― Rick Riordan, The Mark of Athena

“The lake was silent for some time. Finally, it said:
"I weep for Narcissus, but I never noticed that Narcissus was beautiful. I weep because, each time he knelt beside my banks, I could see, in the depths of his eyes, my own beauty reflected.”
― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

“Stop!" Narcissus got to his feet. "This is not right! This person is obviously not awesome, so he must be..." He struggled for the right words. It had probably been a long time since he'd talked about anything other than himself. "He must be tricking us."

Apparently Narcissus wasn't completely stupid.”
― rick riordan, The Mark of Athena

“Narcissistic personality disorder is named for Narcissus, from Greek mythology, who fell in love with his own reflection. Freud used the term to describe persons who were self-absorbed, and psychoanalysts have focused on the narcissist's need to bolster his or her self-esteem through grandiose fantasy, exaggerated ambition, exhibitionism, and feelings of entitlement.”
― Donald W. Black, DSM-5 Guidebook: The Essential Companion to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders

“I tell you, my dear, Narcissus was no egoist… he was merely another of us who, in our unshatterable isolation, recognized, on seeing his reflection, the one beautiful comrade, the only inseparable love… poor Narcissus, possibly the only human who was ever honest on this point.”
― Truman Capote, Other Voices, Other Rooms

“And was it not perhaps more childlike and human to lead a Goldmund-life, more courageous, more noble perhaps in the end to abandon oneself to the cruel stream of reality, to chaos, to commit sins and accept their bitter consequences rather than live a clean life with washed hands outside the world, laying out a lonely harmonious thought-garden, strolling sinlessly among one's sheltered flower beds. Perhaps it was harder, braver and nobler to wander through forests and along the highways with torn shoes, to suffer sun and rain, hunger and need, to play with the joys of the senses and pay for them with suffering.
At any rate, Goldmund had shown him that a man destined for high things can dip into the lowest depths of the bloody, drunken chaos of life, and soil himself with much dust and blood, without becoming small and common, without killing the divine spark within himself, that he can err through the thickest darkness without extinguishing the divine light and the creative force inside the shrine of his soul.”
― Herman Hesse

“You don't want captains in the army who know too much or think too much.”
― Robert Graves, Claudius the God and His Wife Messalina

“Love of God," he said slowly, searching for words, "is not always
the same as love of good, I wish it were that simple. We know what
is good, it is written in the Commandments. But God is not
contained only in the Commandments, you know; they are only an
infinitesimal part of Him. A man may abide by the Commandments
and be far from God.”
― Hermann Hesse

“I'll never miss a chance to remind you of what a brat you were. A gloriously beautiful and very spoiled brat. I was utterly charmed by your complete self-absorption. It was rather like courting a cat.”
― Robin Hobb, City of Dragons

“People don't change.'

'People change entirely,' I said. 'Look at Narcissus. Became a flower. I call that change.”
― Kamila Shamsie

“Their mask reflects what you seek and that is what makes it so nice at first. A manufactured mirror of your dreams.”
― Tracy Malone

“One narcissus among the ordinary beautiful
flowers, one unlike all the others! She pulled,
stooped to pull harder-
when, sprung out of the earth
on his glittering terrible
carriage, he claimed his due.
It is finished. No one had heard her.
No one! She had strayed from the herd.

(Remember: go straight to school.
This is important, stop fooling around!
Don't answer to strangers. Stick
with your playmates. Keep your eyes down.)
This is how easily the pit
opens. This is how one foot sinks into the ground.”
― Rita Dove

“Oh, Narcissus! My heart beats ink for you.
A pulse in every line.
It's your eyes
my words want to be read by,
your kind of mind
they would be understood by,
your heart
they'd be felt by,
and then you'd feel the same way that I do,
if only these words could be read or heard by you.”
― Steven L. Sheppard, The Untold Story Of Narcissus And Echo

“Forgive me, father, I am not certain what my own wishes are. I shall always take pleasure in study, how could it be otherwise? But I do not believe that my life will be limited to study. A man's wishes may not always determine his destiny, his mission; perhaps there are other predetermining factors.”
― Hermann Hesse

“She saw Narcissus roaming through the country, / Saw him, and burned, and followed him in secret / Burning the more she followed, as when sulfur / Smeared on the rim of torches, catches fire / When other fire comes near it.

Oh, how often / She wanted to come near with coaxing speeches, / Make soft entreaties to him! / But her nature / Sternly forbids...”
― Ovid, Ovid's Metamorphoses: Books 1-5

“And often the reflection in the pool
Dissolves us asunder:
Know the image!”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Sonnets to Orpheus

“The sight of that dear form was unexpected, it had appeared unhoped-for, without giving him time to compose his features. Joy, surprise, and admiration might have painted themselves quite openly upon his face - and just at this second it happened that Tadzio smiled. Smiled at Aschenbach, unabashed and friendly, a speaking, winning, captivating smile, with slowly parting lips. With such a smile it might be that Narcissus bent over the mirroring pool, a smile profound, infatuated, lingering, as he put out his arms to the reflection of his own beauty; the lips just slightly pursed, perhaps half-realizing his own folly in trying to kiss the cold lips of his shadow—with a mingling of coquetry and curiosity and a faint unease, enthralling and enthralled.”
― Thomas Mann, Death in Venice and Other Stories

“Mirrors! - Who has ever known you,
Described you? Entered into your very
Being? Holes which appear in time, are filled-in,
Like clear pores of a sieve.

You, squanderers of empty drawing-rooms,
In the dusk broad as the great forests ...
And when the lustre shoots like a stag’s antlers
Down through ways untrodden inside you.

Sometimes you engulf paintings, -
Are stuffed with them, -
Then some are timorously despatched, go past.

But the most beautiful shall remain within you,
Held there till pure Narcissus is unbound and penetrates
Down to a visage comprised in you.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Sonnets to Orpheus

“If 't be true thou dost love me, then bare thy breast and runneth upon this bodkin. Nay, I do not require thy life or lethal proof that Narcissus festered in isolation. Man is a blotted parchment of sins and reminiscence his Purgatory.”
― Stewart Stafford