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Quote by Marguerite Yourcenar

“I think still that someone wiser than I might well have remained happy till his death.”

Quote by Marguerite Yourcenar

Book:Memoirs of Hadrian

Work

Memoirs of Hadrian

Memoirs of Hadrian is a fictionalized account of the reign and personal life of the Roman Emperor Hadrian. The novel explores the complexities of power, love, and political intrigue during the second century AD. more

Author

Marguerite Yourcenar

Marguerite Yourcenar was a renowned French novelist, known for her historical novels. Her works are celebrated for their profound insight and rich imagination, with her most famous novel being 'Orlando'. Born on June 8, 1903, she passed away on December 17, 1987. more

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“Life is atrocious, we know. But precisely because I expect little of the human condition, man's periods of felicity, his partial progress, his efforts to begin over again and continue, all seem to me like so many prodigies which nearly compensate for the monstrous mass of ills and defeats, of indifference and error. Catastrophe and ruin will come; disorder will triumph, but order will too, from time to time.”

Source: Memoirs of Hadrian

“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.”

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“He that boasts of his ancestors confesses that he has no virtue of his own. No person ever lived for our honor; nor ought that to be reputed ours, which was long before we had a being; for what advantage can it be to a blind man to know that his parents had good eyes? Does he see one whit the better?”

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“Those who have nothing else to recommend them to the respect of others but only their blood, cry it up at a great rate, and have their mouth perpetually full of it. They swell and vapor, and you are sure to hear of their families and relations every third word.”

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“Great towns are but a large sort of prison to the soul; like cages to birds, or pounds to beasts.”

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“The shortest follies are the best. [Fr., Les plus courtes folies sont les meilleures.]”

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“Gratitude is a virtue disposing the mind to an inward sense and an outward acknowledgment of a benefit received, together with a readiness to return the same, or the like, as occasions of the doer of it shall require, and the abilities of the receiver extend to. He who receives a good turn, should never forget it: he who does one, should never remember it.”

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“Wise men mingle mirth with their cares, as a help either to forget or overcome them; but to resort to intoxication for the ease of one's mind is to cure melancholy by madness.”

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“Mutability is the badge of infirmity. It is seldom that a man continues to wish and design the same thing two days alike. Now he is for marrying; and now a mistress is preferred to a wife. Now he is ambitious and aspiring; presently the meanest servant is not more humble than he. This hour he squanders his money away; the next he turns miser. Sometimes he is frugal and serious; at other times profuse, airy, and gay.”

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“To owe an obligation to a worthy friend is a happiness, and can be no disparagement.”

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