“Bacon's portraits are an interrogation on the limits of the self. Up to what degree of distortion does an individual still remain himself? To what degree of distortion does a beloved person still remain a beloved person? For how long does a cherished face growing remote through illness, through madness, through hatred, through death still remain recognizable? Where is the border beyond which a self ceases to be a self?”
“Love goes very far beyond the physical person of the beloved. It finds its deepest meaning in his spiritual being, his inner self. Whether or not he is actually present, whether or not he is still alive at all, ceases somehow to be of importance.”
“Every person tries to flee himself—yet despite ourselves, we remain attached to this self which we hate.”
“Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.”
“And to the degree that the individual maintains a show before others that he himself does not believe, he can come to experience a special kind of alienation from self and a special kind of wariness of others.”
“Microscopic Vs Telescopic vision-When you like someone you see him through a telescope, meaning you don’t see his minor faults and look only the brighter side of the person. On the other hand the person whom you hate is seen by microscope. His minor faults are amplified. This gives a distorted picture of the personality. For example you do not know how many germs are on your hand now. You feel that it is clean. But if you see through a microscope you will find many germs and then you will bad about your hand, the same hand which you think is clean. You wash it by soap but still some remains.”