“Love is not a fire to be shut up in a soul. Everything betrays us: voi...” — Jean Racine Quote

Love is not a fire to be shut up in a soul. Everything betrays us: voice, silence, eyes; half-covered fires burn all the brighter.

If I could believe that this was said sincerely, I could put up with anything.

A tragedy need not have blood and death; it's enough that it all be filled with that majestic sadness that is the pleasure of tragedy.

Hell, covering all with its gloomy vapors, has cast shadows on even the holiest eyes.

Thank the Gods! My misery exceeds all my hopes!

You can never betray the people who are dead, so you go on being a public Jew; the dead can't answer slurs, but I'm here. I would love to think that Jesus wants me for a sunbeam, but he doesn't.

I recognise why I have such a strong inability to forgive certain people who betray me. It's chiselled in, like a name on a tomb stone.

Love is whatever you can still betray. Betrayal can only happen if you love.

With land-roaming animals, I've just read so much about the sophistication of their emotional lives and their intelligence and the way they process information that betrays a greater intelligence.

I shall try to write a poem that is about the moment but doesn't betray things that are true to me as a poet.