"How often do we have an urge to go beyond the historical consciousness, a longing, a homesickness for the primeval forest that lies behind us, and does not this longing acquire a double significance when it joins to itself the conception of another being whose home is also in that region? Therefore, every marriage, even one that is entered into after sober consideration, has an urge, at least in particular moments, to imagine such a foreground. And how beautiful it is that the God who is spirit also loves the earthly love. That there is much lying among married people on this score, I readily admit to you, and that your observations along this line have frequently amused me, but the truth in it ought not to be forgotten. Perhaps someone thinks it is better to have complete authority in the choice of “one’s life-partner,” but such an expression as that betrays an extreme narrowness of mind and foolish self-importance of understanding and has no intimation that in its genius romantic love is free and that precisely this genius constitutes its greatness."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Hong, p. 20-21
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Either%2FOr
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Either/Or
73 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Either/Or →
Related Quotes
"Dear Reader: I wonder if you may not sometimes have felt inclined to doubt a little the correctness of the familiar p…"
"These papers have afforded me an insight into the lives of two men, which has confirmed my hunch that the external is…"
"A’s papers contain a number of attempts to formulate an aesthetic philosophy of life. A single, coherent, aesthetic v…"
"What is a poet? An unhappy man who conceals profound anguish in his heart, but whose lips are so fashioned that when …"
"People flock about the poet and say to him: do sing again; Which means, would that new sufferings tormented your soul…"
"My view of life is utterly meaningless. I suppose an evil spirit has set a pair of spectacles upon my nose of which o…"
"Life has become a bitter drink to me, and yet I must take it like medicine, slowly, drop by drop."
"No one ever comes back from the dead, no one ever enters the world without weeping; no one is asked when he wishes to…"
"Alas, the doors of fortune do not open inward, so that by storming them one can force them open; but they open outwar…"
"To forget — this is the desire of all people, and when they encounter something unpleasant, they always say: If only …"