“Despair itself if it goes on long enough, can become a kind of sanctuary in which one settles down and feels at ease.”

—  Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve

Le désespoir lui-même, pour peu qu'il se prolonge, devient une sorte d'asile dans lequel on peut s'asseoir et reposer.

"Vie de Joseph Delorme" (1829), cited from Poésies completes de Sainte-Beuve (Paris: Charpentier, 1840) p. 16; Mardy Grothe Oxymoronica (London: HarperCollins, 2004) p. 201.

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Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve photo
Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve10
French literary critic 1804–1869

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