Love is a punishment. We are punished for not having been strong enough to remain alone. — Marguerite Yourcenar Copy Share Image
Of all our games, love's play is the only one which threatens to unsettle the soul... — Marguerite Yourcenar Copy Share Image
“That mysterious play which extends from love of a body to a love of an entire person has seemed to me noble… — Marguerite Yourcenar Copy Share Image
“Friendship affords total certitude above all and that is what distinguishes it from love. It means respect as well and total acceptance… — Marguerite Yourcenar Copy Share Image
I believe that friendship, like love, of which it is a particular kind, requires nearly as much art as a successful choreography. — Marguerite Yourcenar Copy Share Image
I am not sure that the discovery of love is necessarily more exquisite than the discovery of poetry. — Marguerite Yourcenar Copy Share Image
“But this practice [vegetarianism], in which youthful love of austerity finds charm, calls for attentions more complicated than those of culinary refinement… — Marguerite Yourcenar Copy Share Image
“Of all our games, love’s play is the only one which threatens to unsettle our soul, and is also the only one… — Marguerite Yourcenar Copy Share Image
“Nailed to the beloved body like a slave to a cross, I have learned some secrets of life which are now dimmed… — Marguerite Yourcenar Copy Share Image
“The short and obscene sentence of Poseidonius about the rubbing together of two small pieces of flesh, which I have seen you… — Marguerite Yourcenar Copy Share Image
The technique of a great seducer requires a facility and an indifference in passing from one object of affection to another which… — Marguerite Yourcenar Copy Share Image
“Any law too often subject to infraction is bad; it is the duty of the legislator to repeal or to change it, lest the… — Marguerite Yourcenar Copy Share
Of all our games, love's play is the only one which threatens to unsettle the soul... — Marguerite Yourcenar Copy Share
A book may lie dormant for fifty years or for two thousand years in a forgotten corner of a library, only to reveal, upon… — Marguerite Yourcenar Copy Share
“To eat fruit is to welcome into oneself a fair living object, which is alien to us but is nourished and protected like us… — Marguerite Yourcenar Copy Share
Writing is a perpetual choice between a thousand expressions, none of which satisfies me, none of which, above all, satisfies me without the others.… — Marguerite Yourcenar Copy Share
The landscape of my days appears to be composed, like mountainous regions, of varied materials heaped up pell-mell. There I see my nature, itself… — Marguerite Yourcenar Copy Share
But happiness is brittle, and if men and circumstances don't destroy it, it is threatened by ghosts. — Marguerite Yourcenar Copy Share
A young musician plays scales in his room and only bores his family. A beginning writer, on the other hand, sometimes has the misfortune… — Marguerite Yourcenar Copy Share
“ A amizade é, acima de tudo, certeza - é isso o que a distingue do amor.” — Marguerite Yourcenar Copy Share
“It is not by blood, anyhow, that man's true continuity is established: Alexander's direct heir is Caesar, and not the frail infant born of… — Marguerite Yourcenar Copy Share
“Quel bel levriero... si distese sulla mia vita (Memorie di Adriano, Saeculum Aureum)” — Marguerite Yourcenar Copy Share
Love is a punishment. We are punished for not having been strong enough to remain alone. — Marguerite Yourcenar Copy Share
Everything turns out to be valuable that one does for one’s self without thought of profit. — Marguerite Yourcenar Copy Share
The world is big … May it please the One who perchance is to expand the human heart to life's full measure. — Marguerite Yourcenar Copy Share