“Can such bitterness enter into the heart of the devout?”
Tant de fiel entre-t-il dans l'âme des dévots ?
Le Lutrin (1683) I, 12
Original
Tant de fiel entre-t-il dans l'âme des dévots ?
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Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux 30
French poet and critic 1636–1711Related quotes
“To enter into the hearts of men belongs to him who can explore the human heart.”
Eaton's Case (1793)
On staying optimistic (as quoted in “FLASHBACK: Debbie Reynolds Recalls Poor Upbringing and How Gene Kelly Helped Her Career in Early ET Interviews” https://www.etonline.com/news/206086_debbie_reynolds_recalls_poor_upbringing_and_how_gene_kelly_helped_her_career_early_et_interviews (ET Online; 2016 Dec 29)
“The unavailing outcries and the old bitterness
That empty the heart.”
In The Seven Woods http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1518/
In The Seven Woods (1904)
Context: I have heard the pigeons of the Seven Woods
Make their faint thunder, and the garden bees
Hum in the lime-tree flowers; and put away
The unavailing outcries and the old bitterness
That empty the heart. I have forgot awhile
Tara uprooted, and new commonness
Upon the throne and crying about the streets
And hanging its paper flowers from post to post,
Because it is alone of all things happy.
I am contented, for I know that Quiet
Wanders laughing and eating her wild heart
Among pigeons and bees, while that Great Archer,
Who but awaits His house to shoot, still hands
A cloudy quiver over Pairc-na-lee.
Source: The Black Riders and Other Lines (1895), III
“But I like it
Because it is bitter,
And because it is my heart.”
“Place honey on the altars and die,
You lovers that are bitter at heart.”
The Man With the Blue Guitar (1937)
Source: Things Fall Apart (1958), Chapter 3 (p. 27)
