Books are not life, only its ashes.
Marguerite YourcenarRead
The landscape of my days appears to be composed, like mountainous regions, of varied materials heaped up pell-mell. There I see my nature, itself composite, made up of equal parts of instinct and training. Here and there protrude the granite peaks of the inevitable, but all about is rubble from the landslips of chance.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Life is a complex mixture of our instincts, training, and the unpredictable nature of chance.
In this quote, Marguerite Yourcenar reflects on the multifaceted nature of human existence, comparing it to a landscape that consists of diverse elements shaped by both inherent instincts and the influence of training. The notion of granite peaks symbolizes the unchangeable aspects of life, while the surrounding rubble represents the randomness and uncertainties that we encounter, suggesting that our lives are an intricate blend of predetermined characteristics and unpredictable events.
Themes
LifeNatureChanceInstinctTraining
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational talk about embracing life's unpredictability.
More from Marguerite Yourcenar
All quotes →Meditation upon death does not teach one how to die; it does not make the departure more easy, but ease is not what I seek. Beloved boy, so willful and brooding, your sacrifice will have enriched not my life but my death. ... Centuries as yet unborn within the dark womb of time would pass by thousands over that tomb without restoring life to him, but likewise without adding to his death, and without changing the fact that he had been.
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Our true birthplace is that in which we cast for the first time an intelligent eye on ourselves. My first homelands were my books.
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When two texts, or two assertions, perhaps two ideas, are in contradiction, be ready to reconcile them rather than cancel one by the other; regard them as two different facets, or two successive stages, of the same reality, a reality convincingly human just because it is too complex.
Marguerite YourcenarRead
Passion such as hers is all consent, asking little in return. I had merely to enter a room where she was to see her face take on that peaceful expression of one who is resting in bed. If I touched her, I had the impression that all the blood in her veins was turning to honey.
Marguerite YourcenarRead
The founding of libraries was like constructing more public granaries, amassing reserves against a spiritual winter which by certain signs, in spite of myself, I see ahead.
Marguerite YourcenarRead
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