D. H. Lawrence Quotes

Most popular D. H. Lawrence Quotes

Life is ours to be spent, not to be saved. - D. H. Lawrence quote.
Life is ours to be spent, not to be saved.
— D. H. Lawrence

life

God is only a great imaginative experience. - D. H. Lawrence quote.
God is only a great imaginative experience.
— D. H. Lawrence The Dragon of the Apocalypse

God

Be a good animal, true to your animal instincts. - D. H. Lawrence quote.
Be a good animal, true to your animal instincts.
— D. H. Lawrence The White Peacock

advisory

People always make war when they say they love peace. - D. H. Lawrence quote.
People always make war when they say they love peace.
— D. H. Lawrence

peace

The human soul needs actual beauty even more than bread. - D. H. Lawrence quote.
The human soul needs actual beauty even more than bread.
— D. H. Lawrence Star Review

beauty

Literature is a toil and a snare, a curse that bites deep. - D. H. Lawrence quote.
Literature is a toil and a snare, a curse that bites deep.
— D. H. Lawrence The Letters of D. H. Lawrence,

literature

Pornography is the attempt to insult sex, to do dirt on it. - D. H. Lawrence quote.
Pornography is the attempt to insult sex, to do dirt on it.
— D. H. Lawrence Phoenix: The Posthumous Papers of D. H. Lawrence

pornography

The Pyramids will not last a moment compared with the daisy. - D. H. Lawrence quote.
The Pyramids will not last a moment compared with the daisy.
— D. H. Lawrence D. H. Lawrence and Italy

nature flowers

Class makes a gulf, across which all the best human flow is lost. - D. H. Lawrence quote.
Class makes a gulf, across which all the best human flow is lost.
— D. H. Lawrence Sunday Dispatch
I like to write when I feel spiteful; it's like having a good sneeze. - D. H. Lawrence quote.
I like to write when I feel spiteful; it's like having a good sneeze.
— D. H. Lawrence Collected Letters of D. H. Lawrence

why I write

Money poisons you when you've got it, and starves you when you haven't. - D. H. Lawrence quote.
Money poisons you when you've got it, and starves you when you haven't.
— D. H. Lawrence Lady Chatterley's Lover

money

Sex is the root of which intuition is the foliage and beauty is the flower. - D. H. Lawrence quote.
Sex is the root of which intuition is the foliage and beauty is the flower.
— D. H. Lawrence Vanity Fair

sex

The journey of love has been rather a lacerating, if well-worth-it, journey. - D. H. Lawrence quote.
The journey of love has been rather a lacerating, if well-worth-it, journey.
— D. H. Lawrence Fantasia of the Unconscious

love

Sex is just another form of talk, where you act the words instead of saying them. - D. H. Lawrence quote.
Sex is just another form of talk, where you act the words instead of saying them.
— D. H. Lawrence Lady Chatterley's Lover

sex

Sex is really only touch, the closest of all touch. And it's touch we're afraid of. - D. H. Lawrence quote.
Sex is really only touch, the closest of all touch. And it's touch we're afraid of.
— D. H. Lawrence Lady Chatterley's Lover

sex

The more scholastically educated a man is generally, the more he is an emotional boor. - D. H. Lawrence quote.
The more scholastically educated a man is generally, the more he is an emotional boor.
— D. H. Lawrence
The horse, the horse!  The symbol of surging potency and power of movement, of action, in man. - D. H. Lawrence quote.
The horse, the horse!  The symbol of surging potency and power of movement, of action, in man.
— D. H. Lawrence Apocalypse

horses

For my part, I prefer my heart to be broken. It is so lovely, dawn-kaleidoscopic within the crack. - D. H. Lawrence quote.
For my part, I prefer my heart to be broken. It is so lovely, dawn-kaleidoscopic within the crack.
— D. H. Lawrence Pomegranate

heartbreak

Why doesn't the past decently bury itself, instead of sitting waiting to be admired by the present? - D. H. Lawrence quote.
Why doesn't the past decently bury itself, instead of sitting waiting to be admired by the present?
— D. H. Lawrence St. Mawr

the past history

He was an adventurer into the vaults and cellars and horrible underground passages of the human soul. - D. H. Lawrence quote.
He was an adventurer into the vaults and cellars and horrible underground passages of the human soul.
— D. H. Lawrence Studies in Classic American Literature
Every human being is treacherous to every other human being because he has to be true to his own soul. - D. H. Lawrence quote.
Every human being is treacherous to every other human being because he has to be true to his own soul.
— D. H. Lawrence

cynical

Sin is a queer thing.  It isn't the breaking of divine commandments.  It is the breaking of one's own integrity. - D. H. Lawrence quote.
Sin is a queer thing.  It isn't the breaking of divine commandments.  It is the breaking of one's own integrity.
— D. H. Lawrence Studies in Classic American Literature

integrity sin

Be still when you have nothing to say; when genuine passion moves you, say what you've got to say, and say it hot. - D. H. Lawrence quote.
Be still when you have nothing to say; when genuine passion moves you, say what you've got to say, and say it hot.
— D. H. Lawrence Studies in Classic American Literature

writing advice passion

Never trust the artist. Trust the tale. The proper function of a critic is to save the tale from the artist who created it. - D. H. Lawrence quote.
Never trust the artist. Trust the tale. The proper function of a critic is to save the tale from the artist who created it.
— D. H. Lawrence Studies in Classic American Literature

critics

America exhausts the springs of one's soul—I suppose that's what it exists for.  It lives to see all real spontaneity expire. - D. H. Lawrence quote.
America exhausts the springs of one's soul—I suppose that's what it exists for.  It lives to see all real spontaneity expire.
— D. H. Lawrence

America

I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself. A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself. - D. H. Lawrence quote.
I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself. A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself.
— D. H. Lawrence

self-pity

Oh literature, oh the glorious Art, how it preys upon the marrow in our bones.  It scoops the stuffing out of us, and chucks us aside. - D. H. Lawrence quote.
Oh literature, oh the glorious Art, how it preys upon the marrow in our bones.  It scoops the stuffing out of us, and chucks us aside.
— D. H. Lawrence The Letters of D. H. Lawrence,

literature

I never knew how soothing trees are—many trees and patches of open sunlight, and tree presences; it is almost like having another being. - D. H. Lawrence quote.
I never knew how soothing trees are—many trees and patches of open sunlight, and tree presences; it is almost like having another being.
— D. H. Lawrence

trees

Now man cannot live without some vision of himself.  But still less can he live with a vision that is not true to his inner experience and inner feeling. - D. H. Lawrence quote.
Now man cannot live without some vision of himself.  But still less can he live with a vision that is not true to his inner experience and inner feeling.
— D. H. Lawrence Everyman

be yourself vision authenticity

I hate the actor-and-the-audience business. An author should be in among the crowd, kicking their shins or cheering them on to some mischief or merriment. - D. H. Lawrence quote.
I hate the actor-and-the-audience business. An author should be in among the crowd, kicking their shins or cheering them on to some mischief or merriment.
— D. H. Lawrence

authors

If only we could have two lives: the first in which to make one's mistakes, which seem as if they have to be made; and the second in which to profit by them. - D. H. Lawrence quote.
If only we could have two lives: the first in which to make one's mistakes, which seem as if they have to be made; and the second in which to profit by them.
— D. H. Lawrence

mistakes

Love is the flower of life, and blossoms unexpectedly and without law, and must be plucked where it is found, and enjoyed for the brief hour of its duration. - D. H. Lawrence quote.
Love is the flower of life, and blossoms unexpectedly and without law, and must be plucked where it is found, and enjoyed for the brief hour of its duration.
— D. H. Lawrence

love

If only one could have two lives: the first, in which to make one's mistakes, which seem as if they had to be made; and the second in which to profit by them. - D. H. Lawrence quote.
If only one could have two lives: the first, in which to make one's mistakes, which seem as if they had to be made; and the second in which to profit by them.
— D. H. Lawrence

mistakes

Men fight for liberty and win it with hard knocks. Their children, brought up easy, let it slip away again, poor fools. And their grandchildren are once more slaves. - D. H. Lawrence quote.
Men fight for liberty and win it with hard knocks. Their children, brought up easy, let it slip away again, poor fools. And their grandchildren are once more slaves.
— D. H. Lawrence

freedom

The living self has one purpose only: to come into its own fullness of being, as a tree comes into full blossom, or a bird into spring beauty, or a tiger into luster. - D. H. Lawrence quote.
The living self has one purpose only: to come into its own fullness of being, as a tree comes into full blossom, or a bird into spring beauty, or a tiger into luster.
— D. H. Lawrence Reflections on the Death of a Porcupine and Other Essays

the self purpose of life

And if tonight my soul may find her peace
In sleep, and sink in good oblivion,
And in the morning wake like a new-opened flower
Then I have been dipped again in God, and new-created. - D. H. Lawrence quote.
And if tonight my soul may find her peace
In sleep, and sink in good oblivion,
And in the morning wake like a new-opened flower
Then I have been dipped again in God, and new-created.
— D. H. Lawrence

sleep

And what's romance?  Usually, a nice little tale where you have everything As You Like It, where rain never wets your jacket and gnats never bite your nose and it's always daisy-time. - D. H. Lawrence quote.
And what's romance?  Usually, a nice little tale where you have everything As You Like It, where rain never wets your jacket and gnats never bite your nose and it's always daisy-time.
— D. H. Lawrence Studies in Classic American Literature

romance

What sex is, we don't know, but it must be some sort of fire.  For it always communicates a sense of warmth, of glow.  And when this glow becomes a pure shine, then we feel the sense of beauty. - D. H. Lawrence quote.
What sex is, we don't know, but it must be some sort of fire.  For it always communicates a sense of warmth, of glow.  And when this glow becomes a pure shine, then we feel the sense of beauty.
— D. H. Lawrence Vanity Fair

sex

California is a queer place—in a way, it has turned its back on the world, and looks into the void Pacific. It is absolutely selfish, very empty, but not false, and at least, not full of false effort. - D. H. Lawrence quote.
California is a queer place—in a way, it has turned its back on the world, and looks into the void Pacific. It is absolutely selfish, very empty, but not false, and at least, not full of false effort.
— D. H. Lawrence

California

One should stick by one's own soul, and by nothing else.  In one's soul, one knows the truth from the untruth, and life from death.  And if one betrays one's own soul-knowledge one is the worst of traitors. - D. H. Lawrence quote.
One should stick by one's own soul, and by nothing else.  In one's soul, one knows the truth from the untruth, and life from death.  And if one betrays one's own soul-knowledge one is the worst of traitors.
— D. H. Lawrence

be yourself authenticity

A man gradually formulates his religion, be it what it may.  A man has no religion who has not slowly and painfully gathered one together, adding to it, shaping it; and one's religion is never complete and final, it seems, but must always be undergoing modification. - D. H. Lawrence quote.
A man gradually formulates his religion, be it what it may.  A man has no religion who has not slowly and painfully gathered one together, adding to it, shaping it; and one's religion is never complete and final, it seems, but must always be undergoing modification.
— D. H. Lawrence

religion

When we get out of the glass bottle of our ego and when we escape like the squirrels in the cage of our personality and get into the forest again, we shall shiver with cold and fright. But things will happen to us so that we don't know ourselves. Cool, unlying life will rush in. - D. H. Lawrence quote.
When we get out of the glass bottle of our ego and when we escape like the squirrels in the cage of our personality and get into the forest again, we shall shiver with cold and fright. But things will happen to us so that we don't know ourselves. Cool, unlying life will rush in.
— D. H. Lawrence

Travel

My great religion is a belief in the blood, the flesh, as being wiser than the intellect. We can go wrong in our minds. But what our blood feels and believes and says, is always true. The intellect is only a bit and a bridle. What do I care about knowledge. All I want is to answer to my blood, direct, without fribbling intervention of mind, or moral, or what-not. - D. H. Lawrence quote.
My great religion is a belief in the blood, the flesh, as being wiser than the intellect. We can go wrong in our minds. But what our blood feels and believes and says, is always true. The intellect is only a bit and a bridle. What do I care about knowledge. All I want is to answer to my blood, direct, without fribbling intervention of mind, or moral, or what-not.
— D. H. Lawrence

intellect

This is what I believe:
"That I am I."

"That my soul is a dark forest."

"That my known self will never be more than a little clearing in the forest."

"That gods, strange gods, come forth from the forest into the clearing of my known self, and then go back."

"That I must have the courage to let them come and go."

"That I will never let mankind put anything over me, but that I will try always to recognize and submit to the gods in me and the gods in other men and women."

There is my creed. - D. H. Lawrence quote.
This is what I believe:
"That I am I."

"That my soul is a dark forest."

"That my known self will never be more than a little clearing in the forest."

"That gods, strange gods, come forth from the forest into the clearing of my known self, and then go back."

"That I must have the courage to let them come and go."

"That I will never let mankind put anything over me, but that I will try always to recognize and submit to the gods in me and the gods in other men and women."

There is my creed.
— D. H. Lawrence “Humility,” in Studies in Classic American Literature

personal credos

We ought to dance with rapture that we should be alive and in the flesh, and part of the living, incarnate cosmos. I am part of the sun as my eye is part of me. That I am part of the earth my feet know perfectly, and my blood is part of the sea. My soul knows that I am part of the human race, my soul is an organic part of the great human soul, as my spirit is part of my nation. In my own very self, I am part of my family. There is nothing of me that is alone and absolute except my mind, and we shall find that the mind has no existence by itself, it is only the glitter of the sun on the surface of the waters. - D. H. Lawrence quote.
We ought to dance with rapture that we should be alive and in the flesh, and part of the living, incarnate cosmos. I am part of the sun as my eye is part of me. That I am part of the earth my feet know perfectly, and my blood is part of the sea. My soul knows that I am part of the human race, my soul is an organic part of the great human soul, as my spirit is part of my nation. In my own very self, I am part of my family. There is nothing of me that is alone and absolute except my mind, and we shall find that the mind has no existence by itself, it is only the glitter of the sun on the surface of the waters.
— D. H. Lawrence

inspirational

We ought to dance with rapture that we should be alive and in the flesh, and part of the living, incarnate cosmos.
— D. H. Lawrence Apocalypse and the Writings on Revelation

gratitude

I never saw a wild thing
Sorry for itself.
A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough
Without ever having felt sorry for itself.
— D. H. Lawrence The Complete Poems of D. H. Lawrence

self-pity