USERNAME 
PASSWORD 
Subscriber? · Lost password?
Lost username? · More help
Archive > 2007 > Jan · Feb · Mar · Apr · May · Jun · Jul · Aug · Sep · Oct · Nov · Dec
August 18, 2007 · No Comment · Previous · Next  

Sévigné on the Nature of Life

[Image]
Marie Marquise de Sévigné, portrait by Claude Lefèbre

. . . this life is a perpetual chequer-work of good and evil, pleasure and pain. When in possession of what we desire, we are only so much the nearer losing it; and when at a distance from it, we live in expectation of enjoying it again.

We like so much to hear people talk of us and of our motives, that we are charmed even when they abuse us.

Marie de Sévigné, letter dated September 22, 1680.

Previous · Next · More No Comment · Respond via email
As little as $16.97 for 12 months of Harper's—
plus access to our 158-year archive.
Archive > 2009 > Jan · Feb · Mar · Apr · May · Jun · Jul · Aug · Sep · Oct · Nov · Dec

November 2009

FINAL EDITION
Twilight of the American Newspaper
By Richard Rodriguez

THE INTELLIGENCE FACTORY
How America Makes Its Enemies Disappear
By Petra Bartosiewicz

PROSPEROUS FRIENDS
A story by Christine Schutt

Also: Frederick Seidel and Mark Kingwell

Subscribe to the Weekly Review:


We will not sell your email address.