Saidbook

We wish to have what we have not, and what we have ceases to please.

— Jacques Marie Boutet Philippe et Georgette (1791)

On veut avoir ce qu'on n'a pas,
Et ce qu'on a cesse de plaire.

Original text (French)

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Source, in full

Philippe et Georgette (1791). So Ovid, Amores, ii, 19, 3:—"Quod licet ingratum, quod non licet acrius urit." "Caring little for what we may do, we are on fire for what is forbidden." So Maximianus, Elegies, iii, 77: "Permissum fit vile nefas." Reported in Craufurd Tait Ramage (ed.) Beautiful Thoughts from French and Italian Authors (Liverpool: Edward Howell, 1866) p. 218

Attribution

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