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When we lose one we love, our bitterest tears are called forth by the memory of hours when we loved not enough.

— Maurice Maeterlinck Wisdom and Destiny (1898)

Quand nous perdons un être aimé, ce qui nous fait pleurer les larmes qui ne soulagent point, c'est le souvenir des moments où nous ne l'avons pas assez aimé.

Original text (French)

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More quotes by Maurice Maeterlinck

I know that you are looking for the Blue Bird, that is to say, the great secret of things and of happiness, so that Man may make our servitude still harder.

The Blue Bird (1908)

An act of goodness is of itself an act of happiness. No reward coming after the event can compare with the sweet reward that went with it.

The New Dictionary of Thoughts: A Cyclopedia of Quotations (1960)

It is the evil that lies in ourselves that is ever least tolerant of the evil that lies in others.

Wisdom and Destiny (1898)

Men's weaknesses are often necessary to the purposes of life.

The future is a world limited by ourselves; in it we discover only what concerns us and, sometimes, by chance, what interests those whom we love the most.

All Maurice Maeterlinck quotes →

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Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,
And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind.

William Shakespeare A Midsummer Night's Dream (1595)

To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.

Bertrand Russell Marriage and Morals (1929)

Not for the body, but for the heart; companion and company are needed.

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Love seldom haunts the breast where learning lies,
And Venus sets ere Mercury can rise.

Alexander Pope

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Maurice Maeterlinck (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.