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Denis de Rougemont
12quotes
Denis de Rougemont: A Life of Passion and Insight
Full Name and Common Aliases
Denis de Rougemont was born on December 17, 1906, in Lausanne, Switzerland. He is often referred to by his full name, Denis François René Ghislain Marcel de Rougemont.
Birth and Death Dates
December 17, 1906 – December 5, 1985
Nationality and Profession(s)
Swiss-French philosopher, writer, and playwright of international reputation. De Rougemont was a polyglot with fluency in multiple languages, including French, German, English, Italian, and Spanish.
Early Life and Background
Denis de Rougemont was born into a family of Swiss Protestant pastors. His father, Paul-Louis de Rougemont, was a French-speaking pastor from the canton of Geneva. De Rougemont's early life was marked by an intense passion for literature and philosophy. He spent his youth in Geneva, Switzerland, where he developed a strong interest in classical literature and history.
Major Accomplishments
De Rougemont's most notable contributions to intellectual discourse were in the realms of philosophy, psychology, and social critique. His extensive writings spanned multiple genres, from novels and essays to philosophical treatises and plays. Among his most celebrated works are:
"Man's Search for Meaning": De Rougemont's 1935 essay collection explored human existence through the lens of mythology, psychology, and philosophy.
"Love in the Western World": This influential work examined the development of romantic love from ancient Greece to modern times.
Quotes by Denis de Rougemont
Denis de Rougemont's insights on:
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Passion and marriage are essentially irreconcilable. Their origins and their ends make them mutually exclusive. Their co-existence in our midst constantly raises insoluble problems, and the strife thereby engendered constitutes a persistent danger for every one of our social safeguards.
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Social confusion has now reached a point at which the pursuit of immorality turns out to be more exhausting than compliance with the old moral codes.
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Happiness is indeed a Eurydice, vanishing as soon as gazed upon. It can exist only in acceptance, and succumbs as soon as it is laid claim to.
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To love in the sense of passion-love is the contrary of to live. It is an impoverishment of one’s being, an askesis without sequel, an inability to enjoy the present without imagining it as absent, a never-ending flight from possession.
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Animals do feel like us, also joy, love, fear and pain but they cannot grasp the spoken word. It is our obligation to take their part and continue to resist the people who profit by them, who slaughter them and who torture them.
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The more a man is given to sentiment ,the more likely is he to be wordy and to speak well.
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What stirs lyrical poets to their finest flights is neither the delight of the senses nor the fruitful contentment of the settled couple; not the satisfaction of love, but its passion. And passion means suffering.
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To love in the sense of passion-love is the contrary of to live. It is an impoverishment of one's being, an askesis without sequel, an inability to enjoy the present without imagining it as absent, a never-ending flight from possession.
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