“Guilt always hurries towards its complement, punishment; only there does its satisfaction lie.”
The Alexandria Quartet (1957–1960), Justine (1957)
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Lawrence Durrell 52
British novelist, poet, dramatist, and travel writer 1912–1990Related quotes
“The day of my birth, my death began its walk. It is walking toward me, without hurrying.”
Depuis le jour de ma naissance, ma mort s'est mise en marche. Elle marche à ma rencontre, sans se presser.
"Postambule" in La Fin du Potomac (1939); later published in Collected Works Vol. 2 (1947)
“Solitude is not the absence of Love, but its complement.”
Manuscript Found in Accra (2012), Solitude
“No love is ever wasted. Its worth does not lie in reciprocity.”
1770s, Boston Massacre trial (1770)
Context: It is more important that innocence be protected than it is that guilt be punished, for guilt and crimes are so frequent in this world that they cannot all be punished.
But if innocence itself is brought to the bar and condemned, perhaps to die, then the citizen will say, "whether I do good or whether I do evil is immaterial, for innocence itself is no protection," and if such an idea as that were to take hold in the mind of the citizen that would be the end of security whatsoever.
Letter to Thomas Hussey (9 December 1796), quoted in R. B. McDowell (ed.), The Correspondence of Edmund Burke, Volume VIII: September 1794–April 1796 (Cambridge University Press, 1969), p. 165
1790s
“Do not hurry over punishments and do not be pleased and do not be proud of your power to punish.”
Nahj al-Balagha, Letter 53: An order to Malik Al-Ashtar
“Not only around our infancy
Doth heaven with all its splendors lie”
Prelude to Pt. I, st. 2
The Vision of Sir Launfal (1848)
Context: Not only around our infancy
Doth heaven with all its splendors lie;
Daily, with souls that cringe and plot,
We Sinais climb and know it not.
