But happiness is brittle, and if men and circumstances don't destroy it, it is threatened by ghosts. Marguerite Yourcenar More Quotes by Marguerite Yourcenar More Quotes From Marguerite Yourcenar I knew that good like bad becomes a routine, that the temporary tends to endure, that what is external permeates to the inside, and that the mask, given time, comes to be the face itself. Marguerite Yourcenar change wisdom life A touch of madness is, I think, almost always necessary for constructing a destiny. Marguerite Yourcenar destiny insanity thinking Love is a punishment. We are punished for not having been strong enough to remain alone. Marguerite Yourcenar punishment strong love-is Every life is punctuated by deaths and departures, and each one causes great suffering that it is better to endure rather than forgo the pleasure of having known the person who has passed away. Somehow our world rebuilds itself after every death, and in any case we know that none of us will last forever. So you might say that life and death lead us by the hand, firmly but tenderly. Marguerite Yourcenar life-and-death our-world hands age means nothing. If anything I feel that I'm still a child: eternity and childhood are my ages. Marguerite Yourcenar childhood mean children All happiness is a form of innocence. Marguerite Yourcenar innocence form happiness Our great mistake is to try to exact from each person virtues which he does not possess, and to neglect the cultivation of those which he has. Marguerite Yourcenar doe mistake trying Everything turns out to be valuable that one does for one’s self without thought of profit. Marguerite Yourcenar profit self doe Ancient and oriental civilizations were more sensitive than we are to the cycles of things; to the succession of generations, both divine and human; and to change within stasis. Western man is virtually alone in wanting to make his God into a fortress and personal immortality into a bulwark against time. Marguerite Yourcenar generations men civilization To stay in one place and watch the seasons come and go is tanatmount to constant travel: One is traveling with the earth. Marguerite Yourcenar journey spiritual watches This morning it occurred to me for the first time that my body, my faithful companion and friend, truer and better known to me than my own soul, may be after all only a sly beast who will end by devouring his master. Marguerite Yourcenar faithful soul morning A book may lie dormant for fifty years or for two thousand years in a forgotten corner of a library, only to reveal, upon being opened, the marvels or the abysses that it contains, or the line that seems to have been written for me alone. In this respect the writer is not different from any other human being: whatever we say or do can have far-reaching consequences. Marguerite Yourcenar book lying years In the evenings the art of building gave way to that of music, which is architecture, too, though invisible. Marguerite Yourcenar music way art The written word has taught me to listen to the human voice, much as the great unchanging statues have taught me to appreciate bodily motions. Marguerite Yourcenar taught appreciate voice We say: mad with joy. We should say: wise with grief. Marguerite Yourcenar adversity grief wise Writing is a perpetual choice between a thousand expressions, none of which satisfies me, none of which, above all, satisfies me without the others. Yet I ought to know that only music permits a succession of chords. Marguerite Yourcenar choices expression writing All happiness is a work of art: the smallest error falsifies it, the slightest hesitation alters it, the least heaviness spoils it, the slightest stupidity brutalizes it. Marguerite Yourcenar stupidity errors art It is not difficult to nourish admirable thoughts when the stars are present. Marguerite Yourcenar admirable difficult stars Since man, fragment of the universe, is governed by the same laws that preside over the heavens, it is by no means absurd to search there above for the themes of our lives, for those frigid sympathies that participate in our achievements as well as our blunderings. Marguerite Yourcenar law men mean The true birthplace is that wherein for the first time one looks intelligently upon oneself; my first homelands have been books, and to a lesser degree schools. Marguerite Yourcenar hadrian book school
