"I, with a deeper instinct, choose a man who compels my strength, who makes enormous demands on me, who does not doubt my courage or my toughness, who does not believe me naive or innocent, who has the courage to treat me like a woman."

Choice

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Insight & Reflection

This reflection on choice by Anais Nin resonates across generations. It highlights a fundamental truth about human nature: our continuous search for meaning in choice is what ultimately defines our character and our path forward.

About Anais Nin

Angela Anaïs Juana Antolina Rosa Edelmira Nin y Culmell was a French-born American diarist, essayist, novelist, and writer of short stories and erotica. Born to Cuban parents in France, Nin was the daughter of the composer Joaquín Nin and the classically trained singer Rosa Culmell. Nin spent her early years in Spain and Cuba, about sixteen years in Paris (1924–1940), and the remaining half of her life in the United States, where she became an established author.

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Editorial Note: This quote is curated and fact-checked by the Quotes Archive Editorial Team. Verified Literature Specialist.

More by Anais Nin

"The possession of knowledge does not kill the sense of wonder and mystery. There is always more mystery."

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"There are many ways to be free. One of them is to transcend reality by imagination, as I try to do."

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"It is the function of art to renew our perception. What we are familiar with we cease to see. The writer shakes up the familiar scene, and, as if by magic, we see a new meaning in it."

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More about Choice

"Freedom means you are unobstructed in living your life as you choose. Anything less is a form of slavery."

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"It is a humble truth that courage is not the absence of trembling, but the decision to step forward regardless — an essential principle for the reflective life."

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"I often say now I don't have any choice whether or not I have Parkinson's, but surrounding that non-choice is a million other choices that I can make."

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"Employees make the best dates. You don't have to pick them up and they're always tax-deductible."

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