Childish fantasy, like the sheath over the bud, not only protects but curbs the terrible budding spirit, protects not only innocence from the world, but the world from the power of innocence.
Elizabeth BowenLove of privacy - perhaps because of the increasing exactions of society - has become in many people almost pathological.
Elizabeth BowenDarling, I don't want you; I've got no place for you; I only want what you give. I don't want the whole of anyone.... What you want is the whole of me-isn't it, isn't it?-and the whole of me isn't there for anybody. In that full sense you want me I don't exist.
Elizabeth BowenThe paradox of romantic love -- that what one possesses, one can no longer desire -- was at work.
Elizabeth Bowen