Natalie Clifford Barney

Natalie Clifford Barney (31 October 1876 – 2 February 1972) was an American poet, memoirist, and epigrammatist, most of whose life was spent in France. Almost all of her books were written in the language of her adopted country.

Time engraves our faces with all the tears we have not shed.

Quotes

If we are bothered by possessions we cannot really live either from without or from within; we are the possession of our possessions. All wars and most loves come from the possessive instinct.

• If we keep an open mind, too much is likely to fall into it.
  • In "Samples from Almost Illegible Notebooks", ADAM International Review, No. 299 (1962)

• Youth is not a question of years: one is young or old from birth.
  • In "Samples from Almost Illegible Notebooks", ADAM International Review, No. 299 (1962)

• The advantage of love at first sight is that it delays a second sight.
  • In "Samples from Almost Illegible Notebooks", ADAM International Review, No. 299 (1962)

• I am beginning to have a healthy dread of possessions, be it of a country, a house, a being or even an idea. If we are bothered by possessions we cannot really live either from without or from within; we are the possession of our possessions. All wars and most loves come from the possessive instinct. Why grab possessions like thieves, or divide them like socialists when you can ignore them like wise men: that you may belong to everything and everything be yours inclusive of yourself.
  Could we, and we can, have the vital necessities for all, we should do away with this cry of class and begin to differentiate between individuals.
  Individual superiority can alone feed the soul and give back through some materialisation of itself this individualised wealth of being.
  • In "My Country 'tis of Thee", ADAM International Review, No. 299 (1962)

• We know all their gods; they ignore ours. What they call our sins are our gods, and what they call their gods, we name otherwise.
  • In "Gods", ADAM International Review, No. 299 (1962)

• Time engraves our faces with all the tears we have not shed.
  • As quoted in The Amazon of Letters, Ch. 10 (1976) by George Wickes

External links

• The Temple of Friendship at ruevisconti.com (French language, dozens of photos)