
“The difference between friendship and love is how much you can hurt each other.”
“The difference between friendship and love is how much you can hurt each other.”
“[…] the love of power excludes all others.”
I protagonisti, Rizzoli, 1976, p. 265.
1950s - 1990s
Fable LXIII, "Plutus, Cupid, and Time"
Fables (1727)
“Great souls by instinct to each other turn,
Demand alliance, and in friendship burn”
Source: The Campaign (1704), Line 101.
Context: Great souls by instinct to each other turn,
Demand alliance, and in friendship burn;
A sudden friendship, while with stretched-out rays
They meet each other, mingling blaze with blaze.
Polished in courts, and hardened in the field,
Renowned for conquest, and in council skilled,
Their courage dwells not in a troubled flood
Of mounting spirits, and fermenting blood:
Lodged in the soul, with virtue overruled,
Inflamed by reason, and by reason cooled,
In hours of peace content to be unknown.
And only in the field of battle shown:
To souls like these, in mutual friendship joined,
Heaven dares intrust the cause of humankind.
Ram Swarup, introduction to Mohammed and the Rise of Islam by D.S. Margoliouth, New Delhi, Reprint, 1985 and 1995, p. xix.