“In their first passion, women love their lovers; in all the others, they love love.”
Dans les premières passions les femmes aiment l'amant, et dans les autres elles aiment l'amour.
Maxim 471. Compare: "In her first passion woman loves her lover: In all the others, all she loves is love", Lord Byron, Don Juan, Canto iii, Stanza 3.
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665–1678)
Speech at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge (September 26, 1975). "The Root Cause", ch. 9, Our Blood (1976).
Arthur's commentary
The Nemesis of Faith (1849)
Pt. IV, ch. V
Jude the Obscure (1895)
“A woman loves to be obeyed at first, although afterwards she finds her pleasure in obeying.”
The Suicide Club, Story of the Physician and the Saratoga Trunk.
The New Arabian Nights (1882)
Source: Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905), Ch. 10
Context: This woman was a goddess to the end. For her no love could be degrading: she stood outside all degradation. This episode, which she thought so sordid, and which was so tragic for him, remained supremely beautiful. To such a height was he lifted, that without regret he could now have told her that he was her worshipper too. But what was the use of telling her? For all the wonderful things had happened.
"Thank you," was all that he permitted himself. "Thank you for everything."
“Lover," she whispers, and closes her eyes.
It falls upon her.
Love is like dying.”
A Woman in Love (It's Not Me), written with Mike Campbell
Lyrics, Hard Promises (1981)
