Books are not life, only its ashes.
Marguerite YourcenarRead
Laws change more slowly than custom, and though dangerous when they fall behind the times are more dangerous still when they presume to anticipate custom.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes that laws should evolve with societal customs; outdated laws can be dangerous if they try to dictate how society should behave.
Marguerite Yourcenar's quote suggests that the development of laws often lags behind societal customs and traditions. When laws fail to reflect the modern values and practices of the people, they risk becoming obsolete and potentially harmful. Conversely, if laws try to pre-emptively dictate what society should accept or believe, they can lead to conflict and resist the natural evolution of customs. Thus, there must be a balance between legal frameworks and the lived experiences of individuals.
Themes
LawsCustomSocietyChangeTraditionDanger
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech about social reform, one might say this quote to highlight the need for legal updates.
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.
Marguerite YourcenarRead
Our true birthplace is that in which we cast for the first time an intelligent eye on ourselves. My first homelands were my books.
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.
Marguerite YourcenarRead
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
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