“Beauty is desired in order that it may be befouled; not for its own sake, but for the joy brought by the certainty of profaning it.”

—  Tom Stoppard

Elle est désirée pour la salir. Non pour elle-même, mais pour la joie goûtée dans la certitude de la profaner.
Misattributed
Source: Georges Bataille, Erotism (1962) [City Lights Books, 1991, trans. Mary Dalwood, ISBN 0872861902], part I, ch. XIII, p. 144.

Original

Elle est désirée pour la salir. Non pour elle-même, mais pour la joie goûtée dans la certitude de la profaner.

Misattributed

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Tom Stoppard 116
British playwright 1937

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