For me, a poet is someone who is 'in contact.' Someone through whom a current is passing. Marguerite Yourcenar More Quotes by Marguerite Yourcenar More Quotes From Marguerite Yourcenar Any truth creates a scandal. Marguerite Yourcenar scandaltruth And nevertheless I have loved certain of my masters, and those strangely intimate though elusive relations existing between student and teacher, and the Sirens singing somewhere within the cracked voice of him who is first to reveal a new idea. The greatest seducer was not Alcibiades, afterall, it was Socrates. Marguerite Yourcenar voiceteacherideas Passion such as hers is all consent, asking little in return. I had merely to enter a room where she was to see her face take on that peaceful expression of one who is resting in bed. If I touched her, I had the impression that all the blood in her veins was turning to honey. Marguerite Yourcenar passionexpressionblood The memory of most men is an abandoned cemetery where lie, unsung and unhonored, the dead whom they have ceased to cherish. Any lasting grief is reproof to their neglect. Marguerite Yourcenar griefmemorieslying I think still that someone wiser than I might well have remained happy till his death. Marguerite Yourcenar wellsmightthinking A young musician plays scales in his room and only bores his family. A beginning writer, on the other hand, sometimes has the misfortune of getting into print. Marguerite Yourcenar playwritinghands I am not sure that the discovery of love is necessarily more exquisite than the discovery of poetry. Marguerite Yourcenar not-surediscoverylove-is Laws change more slowly than custom, and though dangerous when they fall behind the times are more dangerous still when they presume to anticipate custom. Marguerite Yourcenar hadrianlawfall Men who care passionately for women attach themselves at least as much to the temple and to the accessories of the cult as to their goddess herself. Marguerite Yourcenar who-caresaccessorieswomen Meditation upon death does not teach one how to die; it does not make the departure more easy, but ease is not what I seek. Beloved boy, so willful and brooding, your sacrifice will have enriched not my life but my death. ... Centuries as yet unborn within the dark womb of time would pass by thousands over that tomb without restoring life to him, but likewise without adding to his death, and without changing the fact that he had been. Marguerite Yourcenar sacrificedarkboys There are books which one should not attempt before having passed the age of forty. Marguerite Yourcenar shouldagebook Little soul, gentle and drifting, guest and companion of my body, now you will dwell below in pallid places, stark and bare; there you will abandon your play of yore. But one moment still, let us gaze together on these familiar shores, on these objects which doubtless we shall not see again....Let us try, if we can, to enter into death with open eyes. Marguerite Yourcenar eyesoulplay Sickness disgusts us with death, and we wish to get well, which is a way of wishing to live. But weakness and suffering, with manifold bodily woes, soon discourage the invalid from trying to regain ground: he tires of those respites which are but snares, of that faltering strength, those ardors cut short, and that perpetual lying in wait for the next attack. Marguerite Yourcenar get-wellcuttinglying the press is too often a distorting mirror, which deforms the people and events it represents, making them seem bigger or smaller than they really are. Marguerite Yourcenar mediamirrorspeople
