Elizabeth Bibesco
Elizabeth Bibesco
Elizabeth, Princess Bibescowas an English writer and socialite. She was the daughter of a British Prime Minister and the wife of a Romanian aristocrat. Active as a writer between 1921 and 1940, she drew on her experience in British high society in her work. A final posthumous collection of her stories, poems and aphorisms was published under the title Haven in 1951, with a preface by Elizabeth Bowen...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth26 February 1897
hygiene mind irony
Irony is the hygiene of the mind.
ideas religion ten-commandments
The Ten Commandments don't tell you what you ought to do: They only put ideas into your head.
children growing-up people
Influencing people is dangerous. Their acts and thoughts become your illegitimate children. You can't get away from them and Heaven knows what they mayn't grow up into.
perfect half moments
Perfect moments don't turn into half-hours.
We learn nothing by being right.
loss cutting gains
It is harder to cut our gains than our losses.
forgotten
What we buy belongs to us only when the price is forgotten.
love-is free-love sometimes
Free love is sometimes love but never freedom.
temptation wicked virtuous
Temptations make one very censorious. If you are virtuous you condemn the wicked and if you are wicked, you condemn the virtuous.
silence revealing reticence
Reticences are as revealing as avowals.
punishment joy
Are there any punishments in life but our joys turned against us?
hope luck certainty
We often call a certainty a hope, to bring it luck.
night soul my-soul
My soul has gained the freedom of the night
friendship jobs dangerous
Friendship is a difficult, dangerous job. It is also (though we rarely admit it) extremely exhausting.