Marguerite Yourcenar: Frasi in inglese

Origine: Memoirs of Hadrian

Author's note, p. 367
The Abyss (1968)
Contesto: In alchemical treatises, the formula L'Oeuvre au Noir … designates what is said to be the most difficult phase of the alchemist's process, the separation and dissolution of substance. It is still not clear whether the term applied to daring experiments on matter itself, or whether it was understood to symbolize trials of the mind in discarding all forms of routine and prejudice. Doubtless it signified one or the other meaning alternately, or perhaps both at the same time.

Alexis (1929)
Contesto: Every silence is composed of nothing but unspoken words. Perhaps that is why I became a musician. Someone had to express this silence, make it render up all the sadness it contained, make it sing as it were. Someone had to use not words, which are always too precise not to be cruel, but simply music.

Author's note, p. 367
The Abyss (1968)
Contesto: In alchemical treatises, the formula L'Oeuvre au Noir … designates what is said to be the most difficult phase of the alchemist's process, the separation and dissolution of substance. It is still not clear whether the term applied to daring experiments on matter itself, or whether it was understood to symbolize trials of the mind in discarding all forms of routine and prejudice. Doubtless it signified one or the other meaning alternately, or perhaps both at the same time.

Origine: Memoirs of Hadrian

Le véritable lieu de naissance est celui où l'on a porté pour la première fois un coup d'oeil intelligent sur soi-même: mes premières patries ont été des livres.
Origine: Memoirs of Hadrian (1951), p. 33

Rien n'est plus lent que la véritable naissance d'un homme.
Origine: Memoirs of Hadrian (1951), p. 258

Origine: Memoirs of Hadrian

Origine: Memoirs of Hadrian

Peu de bipèdes depuis Adam ont mérité le nom d'homme.
"A Conversation in Innsbruck", p. 114
The Abyss (1968)

Je savais que le bien comme le mal est affaire de routine, que le temporaire se prolonge, que l'extérieur s'infiltre au dedans, et que le masque, à la longue, devient visage.
Origine: Memoirs of Hadrian (1951), p. 97

Le malheur est que, parfois, des souhaits s'accomplissent, afin que se perpétue le supplice de l'espérance.
Denier du rêve (1934), translated as A Coin in Nine Hands (1994) by Dori Katz, Ch. 3, p. 31 ISBN 0-226-96527-9

Avoir du mérite à s'abstenir d'une faute, c'est une façon d'être coupable.
Alexis (1929)

The Highroad, p. 11<!-- Le Grand Chemin p. 564 -->
The Abyss (1968)

Nous nous croyons purs tant que nous méprisons ce que nous ne désirons pas.
Alexis (1929)

On ne doit plus craindre les mots lorsqu'on a consenti aux choses.
Alexis (1929)

Origine: The Abyss (1968), p. 190