The quarrels of lovers are the renewal of love.
I embrace my rival, but only to strangle him.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that rivalry can be embraced, but it ultimately leads to competition or conflict.
In this quote, Jean Racine expresses a complex perspective on rivalry, indicating that while he may acknowledge and accept his rivals, the underlying intention is one of dominance or competition. The imagery of embracing a rival only to strangle them symbolizes the duality of relationships in competitive contexts, where there may be an acknowledgment of the other person, but it is accompanied by a desire to overcome or defeat them, highlighting the often contradictory nature of human interactions in the face of competition.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech on competition in business, one might say, 'As Jean Racine said, I embrace my rival, but only to strangle him, highlighting the nature of competition.'
More from Jean Racine
All quotes βI have everything, yet have nothing; and although I possess nothing, still of nothing am I in want.
I am a man, and nothing that concerns a man do I deem a matter of indifference to me.
There are no secrets that time does not reveal.
A single word often betrays a great design.
Similar quotes
Once upon a time, I dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was myself. Soon I awaked, and there I was, veritably myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man.
Only then, approaching my fortieth birthday, I made philosophy my life's work.
I decided, if I'm going to be poor and black and all, the least thing I'm going to do is to try and find out who I am. I created everything about me.
Then others for breath of words respect, Me for my dumb thoughts, speaking in effect.
It seems to me there's this tyranny that's not accidental or incidental, to make women feel compelled to look like somebody they're not. I think the effort is being made to get us to turn our time and attention to this instead of important political issues.
Words bend our thinking to infinite paths of self-delusion, and the fact that we spend most of our mental lives in brain mansions built of words means that we lack the objectivity necessary to see the terrible distortion of reality which language brings.