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.
Denis de RougemontSocial 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.
Denis de RougemontWhy should neurotic, selfish, immature people suddenly become angels when they fall in love ... ?
Denis de RougemontHappiness 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.
Denis de RougemontWhat 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.
Denis de RougemontPassion 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.
Denis de Rougemont