Quotessence
Home / Authors / Marguerite Yourcenar
Marguerite Yourcenar

Marguerite Yourcenar Quotes

Novelist

Filter quotes by topic

AllMenBookHadrianIfsMarguerite YourcenarHadrienHumansRomeThinkingDesireLawLifeMayMemorie Di AdrianoStillsAgeFirstsLyingSoulTrying

Famous Marguerite Yourcenar Quotes

“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.”

WayTryingWellsLyingSufferingNextWishWaitingCuttingWeaknessIllnessSicknessPerpetualDisgustingWoeTireDiscouragingSnaresGet WellManifoldArdorRespiteFaltering
Book:Hadrian's Memoirs
Create image

“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.”

IfsTryingLittlesStillsSoulPlayMomentsBodyEyeTogetherObjectsFamiliarGentleAbandonCompanionShoreGuestsStarksDriftingOpen EyesHadrian
Book:Hadrian's Memoirs
Create image

“For my part I have sought liberty more than power, and power only because it can lead to freedom. What interested me was not a philosophy of the free man (all who try that have proved tiresome), but a technique: I hoped to discover the hinge where our will meets and moves with destiny, and where discipline strengthens, instead of restraining, our nature.”

MenTryingPhilosophyMovingLibertyDestinyDisciplineTechniqueFree ManHingesTiresomeRestraining
Book:Memoirs of Hadrian
Create image