Lawrence Durrell Quotes

Quotes about:

• Whatever the heart desires, it purchases at the cost of soul

  Lawrence Durrell

  Heart, Soul, Desire

  7 Copy quote

• The whole Mediterranean, the sculpture, the palm, the gold beads, the bearded heroes, the wine, the ideas, the ships, the moonlight, the winged gorgons, the bronze men, the philosophers - all of it seems to rise in the sour, pungent taste of these black olives between the teeth. A taste older than meat, older than wine. A taste as old as cold water.

  Lawrence Durrell

  Hero, Wine, Men

  Lawrence Durrell (1978). “Prospero's cell: a guide to the landscape and manners of the island of Corcyra”, Viking Pr

  14 Copy quote

• The richest love is that which submits to the arbitration of time.

  Lawrence Durrell

  Love, Anniversary, Valentines Day

  Lawrence Durrell (2012). “The Alexandria Quartet: Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive, Clea”, p.803, Faber & Faber

  90 Copy quote

• The loved object is simply one that has shared an experience at the same moment of time, narcissistically; and the desire to be near the beloved object is at first not due to the idea of possessing it, but simply to let the two experiences compare themselves, like reflections in different mirrors. All this may precede the first look, kiss, or touch; precede ambition, pride, or envy; precede the first declarations which mark the turning point—for from here love degenerates into habit, possession, and back to loneliness.

  Lawrence Durrell

  Loneliness, Ambition, Kissing

  Lawrence Durrell (2012). “The Alexandria Quartet: Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive, Clea”, p.39, Faber & Faber

  6 Copy quote

• Perhaps our only sickness is to desire a truth which we cannot bear rather than to rest content with the fictions we manufacture out of each other.

  Lawrence Durrell

  Desire, Fiction, Bears

  Lawrence Durrell (1991). “Clea”, Penguin Group USA

  5 Copy quote

• We are all hunting for rational reasons for believing in the absurd.

  Lawrence Durrell

  Believe, Hunting, Reason

  Lawrence Durrell (2012). “The Alexandria Quartet: Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive, Clea”, p.70, Faber & Faber

  20 Copy quote

• Truth is a woman. That is why it is enigmatic.

  Lawrence Durrell

  Truth, Truth Is, Enigmatic

  Lawrence Durrell (2012). “The Alexandria Quartet: Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive, Clea”, p.317, Faber & Faber

  6 Copy quote

• Life is more complicated than we think, yet far simpler than anyone dares to imagine

  Lawrence Durrell

  Thinking, Life Is, Complicated

  7 Copy quote

• Travel can be one of the most rewarding forms of introspection.

  Lawrence Durrell

  Travel, Journey, Form

  Lawrence Durrell (2011). “Bitter Lemons of Cyprus”, p.6, Faber & Faber

  23 Copy quote

• I don’t believe one reads to escape reality. A person reads to confirm a reality he knows is there, but which he has not experienced.

  Lawrence Durrell

  Believe, Reality, Confirmation

  15 Copy quote

• Like all young men I set out to be a genius, but mercifully laughter intervened.

  Lawrence Durrell

  Happiness, Laughter, Men

  Lawrence Durrell (1991). “Clea”, Penguin Group USA

  12 Copy quote

• Try and travel with the eyes of the spirit wide open, and not too much factual information. To tune in, without reverence, idly -- but with real inward attention. It is to be had for the feeling, that mysterious sense of rapport, of identity with the ground. You can extract the essence of a place once you know how. If you just get as still as a needle you'll be there.

  Lawrence Durrell

  Travel, Real, Eye

  4 Copy quote

• Science is the poetry of the intellect and poetry the science of the heart's affections.

  Lawrence Durrell

  Heart, Affection, Intellect

  Lawrence Durrell (2012). “The Alexandria Quartet: Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive, Clea”, p.361, Faber & Faber

  7 Copy quote

• Lovers can find nothing to say to each other that has not been said and unsaid a thousand times over. Kisses were invented to translate such nothings into wounds

  Lawrence Durrell

  Kissing, Lovers, Unsaid

  Lawrence Durrell (2012). “The Alexandria Quartet: Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive, Clea”, p.377, Faber & Faber

  6 Copy quote

• Does not everything depend on our interpretation of the silence around us?

  Lawrence Durrell

  Silence, Doe, Quiet

  Lawrence Durrell (2015). “From the Elephant's Back: Collected Essays & Travel Writings”, p.23, University of Alberta

  15 Copy quote

• Music is only love looking for words.

  Lawrence Durrell

  Inspirational, Funny, Music

  Lawrence Durrell (2012). “Collected Poems 1931-74”, p.66, Faber & Faber

  23 Copy quote

• It is the duty of every patriot to hate his country creatively.

  Lawrence Durrell

  Country, Hate, Patriot

  Lawrence Durrell (2012). “The Alexandria Quartet: Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive, Clea”, p.263, Faber & Faber

  8 Copy quote

• Truth disappears with the telling of it.

  Lawrence Durrell

  Truth, Telling The Truth, Disappear

  Lawrence Durrell (1960). “Clea”

  10 Copy quote

• It is not peace we seek but meaning.

  Lawrence Durrell

  Peace, Passion

  Lawrence Durrell (2012). “Collected Poems 1931-74”, p.267, Faber & Faber

  8 Copy quote

• A city becomes a world when one loves one of its inhabitants.

  Lawrence Durrell

  Love, Cities, World

  Lawrence Durrell (2012). “The Alexandria Quartet: Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive, Clea”, p.49, Faber & Faber

  16 Copy quote

• An idea is like a rare bird which cannot be seen. What one sees is the trembling of the branch it has just left.

  Lawrence Durrell

  Ideas, Bird, Branches

  "Monsieur". Book by Lawrence Durrell, 1974.

  6 Copy quote

• For us artists there waits the joyous compromise through art with all that wounded or defeated us in daily life; in this way, not to evade destiny, as the ordinary people try to do, but to fulfil it in its true potential - the imagination.

  Lawrence Durrell

  Art, Destiny, People

  Lawrence Durrell (2012). “The Alexandria Quartet: Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive, Clea”, p.14, Faber & Faber

  24 Copy quote

• Very few people realise that sex is a psychic and not a physical act. The clumsy coupling of human beings is simply a biological paraphrase of this truth - a primitive method of introducing minds to each other, engaging them. But most people are stuck in the physical aspect, unaware of the poetic rapport which it so clumsily tries to teach.

  Lawrence Durrell

  Sex, Psychics, People

  Lawrence Durrell (2012). “The Alexandria Quartet: Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive, Clea”, p.272, Faber & Faber

  9 Copy quote

• Who invented the human heart, I wonder? Tell me, and then show me the place where he was hanged.

  Lawrence Durrell

  Heart, Wonder, Show Me

  Lawrence Durrell (2012). “The Alexandria Quartet: Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive, Clea”, p.74, Faber & Faber

  16 Copy quote

• The national characteristics... the restless metaphysical curiosity, the tenderness of good living and the passionate individualism. This is the invisible constant in a place with which the ordinary tourist can get in touch just by sitting quite quietly over a glass of wine in a Paris bistro.

  Lawrence Durrell

  Wine, Paris, Glasses

  13 Copy quote

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