I had friends. The idea of being forever separated from them and from all their troubles is one of the greatest sorrows that I suffer in dying. Let them at least know that to my latest moment I thought of them.
Interpretation
The quote expresses deep sorrow over the thought of leaving friends behind in death.
In this quote, Marie Antoinette reflects on the profound emotional connection she has with her friends and the pain associated with the idea of leaving them due to her impending death. She conveys that the bonds of friendship are so significant that the mere thought of being separated from them brings her great sorrow, emphasizing the importance of these relationships in her life.
In practice
During a heartfelt speech at a memorial, one might reflect on the enduring bonds of friendship using this quote.
Qu'ils mangent de la brioche. Let them eat cake. On being told that her people had no bread. Attributed to Marie-Antoinette, but remark is much older. Rousseau refers in his Confessions, 1740, to a similar remark, as a well-known saying. Others attribute the remark to the wife of Louis XIV.
I was a queen, and you took away my crown; a wife, and you killed my husband; a mother, and you deprived me of my children. My blood alone remains: take it, but do not make me suffer long.
No one understands my ills, nor the terror that fills my breast, who does not know the heart of a mother.
I trust we shall never be reduced to the painful extremity of seeking the aid of Mirabeau.
I've lost many of my best friends... I'm going to satisfy myself now, not the critics, not even my friends.
A friend is one soul abiding in two bodies.
only kindness that raises its head from the crowd of the world to say it is I you have been looking for, and then goes with you everywhere like a shadow or a friend.
I never meant to write about the experience of losing a good friend to breast cancer when I was going through it. But after it was over, I realized that although something deeply sad had happened, something truly beautiful also had.
Nothing will ever please me, no matter how excellent or beneficial, if I must retain the knowledge of it to myself. . . . . . No good thing is pleasant to possess, without friends to share it.
Let our friends perish, provided that our enemies fall at the same time.
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