“We believe ourselves pure as long as we despise what we do not desire.”
Nous nous croyons purs tant que nous méprisons ce que nous ne désirons pas.
Alexis (1929)
Original
Nous nous croyons purs tant que nous méprisons ce que nous ne désirons pas.
Alexis (1929)
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Marguerite Yourcenar 37
French writer 1903–1987Related quotes
“If we go down into ourselves, we find that we possess exactly what we desire.”
Source: Drenai series, Quest for Lost Heroes, Ch. 12
As quoted in The Complete Works of Michael de Montaigne (1877) edited by William Carew Hazlitt, p. 289
“If we don't believe in free expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all.”
Noam Chomsky in interview by John Pilger on BBC's The Late Show, November 25, 1992 http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/14177.htm.
Quotes 1990s, 1990-1994
The Inferno (1917), Ch. XIV
Context: What am I? I am the desire not to die. I have always been impelled — not that evening alone — by the need to construct the solid, powerful dream that I shall never leave again. We are all, always, the desire not to die. This desire is as immeasurable and varied as life's complexity, but at bottom this is what it is: To continue to be, to be more and more, to develop and to endure. All the force we have, all our energy and clearness of mind serve to intensify themselves in one way or another. We intensify ourselves with new impressions, new sensations, new ideas. We endeavour to take what we do not have and to add it to ourselves. Humanity is the desire for novelty founded upon the fear of death. That is what it is.
Page 32.
Golden Booklet of the True Christian Life (1551)
“We always condemn ourselves by what we say, not by what we do.”
Nos condenamos siempre por lo que decimos, no por lo que hacemos.
Source: Todas las Almas [All Souls] (1989), p. 31