QuoteProject
O love, if I regret the age when one savors you, it is not for the hour of pleasure, but for the one that follows it.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote reflects on the bittersweet nature of love, highlighting how one may regret love not for its joyful moments, but for the inevitable sadness that follows.

In this quote, Rousseau expresses a complex sentiment about love, indicating that while the moments of joy and pleasure in loving someone are cherished, they are ultimately shadowed by the pain of loss or longing that often comes after. This suggests that love is intertwined with both happiness and sorrow, and the memories of love can linger with a sense of nostalgia and regret for the fleeting nature of such emotions.

Themes

LoveRegretPleasureSadnessNostalgia

In practice

Example use cases

During a wedding toast, one might quote Rousseau to express the deep complexities of love.

More from Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Patience patience quotes is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.
Jean-Jacques RousseauRead
The infant, on opening his eyes, ought to see his country, and to the hour of his death never lose sight of it.
Jean-Jacques RousseauRead
What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?
Jean-Jacques RousseauRead
Those people who treat politics and morality separately will never understand either of them.
Jean-Jacques RousseauRead
As evening approached, I came down from the heights of the island, and I liked then to go and sit on the shingle in some secluded spot by the lake; there the noise of the waves and the movement of the water, taking hold of my senses and driving all other agitation from my soul, would plunge me into delicious reverie in which night often stole upon me unawares.
Jean-Jacques RousseauRead
To live is not to breathe but to act. It is to make use of our organs, our senses, our faculties, of all the parts of ourselves which give us the sentiment of our existence. The man who has lived the most is not he who has counted the most years but he who has most felt life.
Jean-Jacques RousseauRead

Similar quotes

I wonder if I am capable of being somebody’s sun, somebody’s everything. Am I centered enough now to be the center of somebody else’s life?
Elizabeth GilbertRead
I call not that virginity a virtue, which resideth onely in the bodies integrity; much less if it be with a purpose of perpetually keeping it: for then it is a most inhumane vice. - But I call that Virginity a virtue which is willing and desirous to yield it self upon honest and lawfull terms, when just reason requireth; and until then, is kept with a modest chastity of body and mind.
John DonneRead
Love is poison. A sweet poison, yes, but it will kill you all the same.
George R. R. MartinRead
You can do this" I murmured. "You are my brother. I love you. All the embarrassing bits, all the annoying bits, which I imagine is most of you--a thousand Zias might run away from you if they knew the truth. But I won't. I'll still be here.
Rick RiordanRead
Posting a letter and getting married [sic] are among the few things left that are entirely romantic; for to be entirely romantic, a thing must be irrevocable
Gilbert K. ChestertonRead
What power is it which mounts my love so high, that makes me see, and cannot feed mine eye
William ShakespeareRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.