Monday, December 15, 2008

The weekly bon mot

"The pain passes, but the beauty remains."

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919)


Having just endured the departure of another of my (unrequited, of course) amours, I can't help thinking that P-A got it backwards....

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Of course you're right.
Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian got it the right way round in 1780.

Froog said...

Well, I'll have to take your word for it, Tony. M. de Florian is not an intimate of mine.

His best-known quote online appears to be (haven't found the original yet): "The pleasure of love lasts a moment, the pain of love lasts a lifetime."

Which is good; but not quite what I was talking about here. I think Renoir and I were thinking more of the moments of rapture one experiences in depression - although this is often related to romantic infatuation.