"In dreams the truth is learned that all good works are done in the absence of a caress"
About this Quote
Cohen lands this line like a hush after the party: intimate, a little cruel, and uncomfortably plausible. “In dreams” is doing the heavy lifting. Dreams aren’t motivational posters; they’re the mind’s after-hours audit, where flattering stories about why we’re good get stripped down to their wiring. The “truth” he claims we learn there isn’t that kindness is easy or natural, but that it’s clearest when it’s un-rewarded.
“Absence of a caress” reads as both literal and metaphorical. A caress is touch, approval, reassurance, the small wage we expect for being decent. Cohen suggests that the cleanest good work happens when no one is there to stroke your hair, applaud your sacrifice, or pay you back with affection. He’s suspicious of virtue that feeds on tenderness. If you’re being held, if you’re being loved, you’re no longer testing your moral muscle; you’re spending emotional credit.
The line also carries the Cohen trademark: eros pressed against ethics. He doesn’t dismiss caresses; he mourns their absence. There’s a monastic edge here, a recognition that real devotion often comes with loneliness, and that creation itself can be an act performed without comfort. In the context of his wider work - where desire, religion, and self-reproach keep trading masks - this feels like a confession: the best things he’s done arrived not at his most adored, but at his most unsoothed.
It’s not a slogan about self-denial. It’s a diagnosis of how messy our motives are, and a dare to do right when love isn’t watching.
“Absence of a caress” reads as both literal and metaphorical. A caress is touch, approval, reassurance, the small wage we expect for being decent. Cohen suggests that the cleanest good work happens when no one is there to stroke your hair, applaud your sacrifice, or pay you back with affection. He’s suspicious of virtue that feeds on tenderness. If you’re being held, if you’re being loved, you’re no longer testing your moral muscle; you’re spending emotional credit.
The line also carries the Cohen trademark: eros pressed against ethics. He doesn’t dismiss caresses; he mourns their absence. There’s a monastic edge here, a recognition that real devotion often comes with loneliness, and that creation itself can be an act performed without comfort. In the context of his wider work - where desire, religion, and self-reproach keep trading masks - this feels like a confession: the best things he’s done arrived not at his most adored, but at his most unsoothed.
It’s not a slogan about self-denial. It’s a diagnosis of how messy our motives are, and a dare to do right when love isn’t watching.
Quote Details
| Topic | Truth |
|---|
More Quotes by Leonard
Add to List
