“Tenderness is greater than love. I do not admire carnal love when it is by itself and bare. I do not admire its disorderly selfish paroxysms, so grossly short-lived. And yet without love the attachment of two human beings is always weak. Love must be added to affection. The things it contributes to a union are absolutely needed — exclusiveness, intimacy, and simplicity.”

—  Henri Barbusse

The Inferno (1917), Ch. XV

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Oct. 2, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Tenderness is greater than love. I do not admire carnal love when it is by itself and bare. I do not admire its disorde…" by Henri Barbusse?
Henri Barbusse photo
Henri Barbusse197
French novelist 1873–1935

Related quotes

Ludwig Wittgenstein photo

“Aim at being loved without being admired.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-British philosopher

Source: Culture and Value (1980), p. 38e

Oscar Wilde photo

“Most people live for love and admiration. But it is by love and admiration that we should live.”

Oscar Wilde book De Profundis

Source: De Profundis

John Steinbeck photo

“I am in love with Montana. For other states I have admiration, respect, recognition, even some affection, but with Montana it is love.”

John Steinbeck book Travels with Charley: In Search of America

Pt. 2
Travels With Charley: In Search of America (1962)
Source: Travels with Charley: In Search of America

Nicolas Cage photo

“I do love romantic movies, but at my age it doesn’t happen very often. I’ve always admired love stories—the expression of love is like white light to me. Every color of the universe is in the love story.”

Nicolas Cage (1964) American actor

"Nicolas Cage Is Ready to Be Taken Seriously Again" in Vanity Fair https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2021/07/nicolas-cage-pig-interview (15 July 2021)

Napoleon I of France photo

“I do not believe it is in our nature to love impartially. We deceive ourselves when we think we can love two beings, even our own children, equally. There is always a dominant affection.”

Napoleon I of France (1769–1821) French general, First Consul and later Emperor of the French

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

Jean-Dominique Bauby photo

“I need to feel strongly, to love and admire, just as desperately as I need to breathe.”

Jean-Dominique Bauby book The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Source: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Hermann Cohen photo

“Worm that I am, consumed by passion, cast as bait for selfishness, I must nonetheless love humanity. If I can do this, and insofar as I can do this, I can also love God.”

Hermann Cohen (1842–1918) German philosopher

Wurm, der ich bin, von Leidenschaften zerfressen, der Selbstsucht zum Köder hingeworfen, soll ich dennoch den Menschen lieben. Wenn ich dies kann, und sofern ich dies kann, kann ich auch Gott lieben. <br class="br">Source: The Concept of Religion in the System of Philosophy (1915), p. 82 http://books.google.com/books?id=rZ9RAAAAMAAJ&amp;pg=PA82

Thomas Mann photo

“I admire the proud and cold who go adventuring on the paths of great and demoniac beauty, and scorn "man" — but I do not envy them. For if anything is capable of making a poet out of a man of letters, it is this plebeian love of mine for the human, living, and commonplace. All warmth, all goodness, all humor is born of it, and it almost seems to me as if it were that love itself, of which it is written that a man might speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and yet without it be no more than sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.”

Thomas Mann book Tonio Kröger

Source: Tonio Kröger (1903), Ch. 9, as translated by Bayard Quincy Morgan

Maya Angelou photo

“I love wisdom. And you can never be great at anything unless you love it. Not be in love with it, but love the thing, admire the thing. And it seems that if you love the thing, and you don't just want to possess it, it will find you.”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

Related topics