# Sylvia Plath's most quoted lines

"I am, I am, I am", the hot bath that cures almost everything and "the blood jet is poetry": the most quoted lines of Sylvia Plath, from The Bell Jar, Ariel and her journals, each with its source.

- 244 votes · 13 items
- Jun 22, 2021 · dealhunter_queenstown
- https://even.best/en/l/5059/sylvia-plath-s-most-quoted-lines

## Top 13

1. **I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart: I am, I am, I am.** (20 · ▲23 ▼3) — The Bell Jar (1963), ch. 20.
2. **If you expect nothing from somebody you are never disappointed.** (18 · ▲20 ▼2) — The Bell Jar (1963), ch. 5.
3. **The blood jet is poetry, there is no stopping it.** (18 · ▲18 ▼0) — Poem "Kindness", in Ariel (1965).
4. **If neurotic is wanting two mutually exclusive things at one and the same time, then I'm neurotic as hell.** (15 · ▲18 ▼3) — The Bell Jar (1963), ch. 8.
5. **Out of the ash I rise with my red hair and I eat men like air.** (15 · ▲18 ▼3) — Poem "Lady Lazarus", in Ariel (1965).
6. **There must be quite a few things a hot bath won't cure, but I don't know many of them.** (14 · ▲18 ▼4) — The Bell Jar (1963), ch. 2.
7. **Perfection is terrible, it cannot have children.** (13 · ▲17 ▼4) — Poem "The Munich Mannequins", in Ariel (1965).
8. **…I would be sitting under the same glass bell jar, stewing in my own sour air.** (11 · ▲14 ▼3) — The Bell Jar (1963), ch. 15.
9. **There ought, I thought, to be a ritual for being born twice — patched, retreaded and approved for the road.** (9 · ▲14 ▼5) — The Bell Jar (1963), ch. 20.
10. **The abstract kills, the concrete saves.** (8 · ▲13 ▼5) — Journals, 7 January 1959.
11. **I am made, crudely, for success.** (7 · ▲9 ▼2) — Journals, 22 April 1958.
12. **Perhaps when we find ourselves wanting everything, it is because we are dangerously near to wanting nothing.** (5 · ▲11 ▼6) — Draft of a letter to Richard Sassoon (December 1955).
13. **I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead; I lift my lids and all is born again.** (1 · ▲6 ▼5) — Poem "Mad Girl's Love Song" (1953).

How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.