Friday, December 5, 2008

Quotes: Love (2)

Love 154 Love begins by imagining the woman we would like to have--a deception we will always have with us. "It is the terrible deception of love that it begins by engaging us in play not with a woman of the external world but with a doll fashioned in our brain—the only woman moreover that we have always at our disposal, the only one we shall ever possess." Proust. 1920-21. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Love 155 "It is a certain sign of love to want to know, to relive, the childhood of the other." Cesare Pavese. 1935-50. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Love 155 When one falls in love, one needs to study the people who are around her--on that your happiness depends. "When one feels oneself smitten by love for a woman, one should say to oneself, ‘Who are the people around her, What kind of life has she led?’ …one’s future happiness lies in the answer." Alfrred De Vigny. Mid 19th century. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Love 156 Love, however short in length of time, creates a past which envelops us. "Love makes up for the lack of long memories…all other affections need a past: love creates a past which envelops us, as if by enchantment." Benjamin Constant. 1816. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Love 156 The lover sees the loved one as a solitary individual. "To the lover the loved one appears always as solitary." Walter Benjamin. 1925-6. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

No comments: