Centre for Romanian Studies

Romanian Dictionary of Quotations, Selected & Translated by Constantin ROMAN: Letter ‘D’

Dark:
“Being kept in the dark is no protection.”
(King Michael de Romania (b. 1921)
(“H M Michael de Romania – an Unfinished Reign”,
Conversations with Philippe Viguier Desplaces, Michel Lafon, 1992)

Death:
“Death constitutes an abrupt change of ontological level and, at the same time, a rite, a passage, just as birth does.”
(Mircea Eliade, (1907, Bucharest-Chicago, 1986),
Writer, Historian of Religions)
(“Myths, Dreams and Mysteries”, Harvill, 1960)

Decadence:
“A Nation disappears when it no longer reacts to the brass band. Decadence is the death of the trumpet.”
(Emil Cioran (1911-1995), philosopher, writer)
(“Syllogismes de l’amertume”)

Delusion:
“Many people have delusions of grandeur, but you are deluded by triviality”
(Eugene Ionesco (1912-1994), dramatist)
(“Exit the King”)
(“La Cellule des liberables”, Gallimard, 1971)

Democracy:
“You know, when one lived for forty years under a régime whose foundations were the lie, the indoctrination and the denunciation one néeds time to get used again to a certain >. Rome was not built in one day. The main objective is to give some confidence to a discouraged people. If we succeed in this endeavour, the rest would come by itself.”
(King Michael of Romania (b. 1921)
(“H M Michael of Romania – an Unfinished Reign”,
Conversations with Philippe Viguier Desplaces, Michel Lafon, 1992)

Desire:
“Sooner or later all desire will meet its moment of fatigue: its truth.”
(Emil Cioran (1911-1995), philosopher, writer)
(“Syllogismes de l’amertume”)

Desire:
“Pain and death are less involuntary than the choice of desire”.
(Anna de Noailles (1876-1933), poet, writer)
Le Coeur innombrable, I, Le baiser

Devotion:
“Seeing us through so many difficult trials, the Almighty God had blessed the labour of those who devoted themselves to the good of this nation and He will not allow to crumble that which had been built with such great sacrifices, and will protect, lovingly, for our People, the work which I, as true Romanian and King, am determined without hesitation to devote to my beloved Country”.
King Ferdinand of Romania (1865-1927)
Speech on the Accession to the Throne
On 28th September 1914)

Dissident:
“It may appear odd that during the whole of Ceausescu’s rule, no dissident of the stature of Mandela in South Africa, Solzhenytsyn in the Soviet Union, or Walesa in Poland, ever came to the fore in Romania. But it must be said, in fairness, that the pressure in Romania was much, much greater than in those other countries.”
(King Michael de Romania (b. 1921)
(“H M Michael of Romania – an Unfinished Reign”,
Conversations with Philippe Viguier Desplaces, Michel Lafon, 1992)

Doctor:
“A conscientious doctor must die with his patient, if the two cannot recover together.”
(Eugene Ionesco (1912-1994), dramatist)
(“The Bald Soprano”)

Door:
“It is not the first time I get confused about doors. I was obstinate enough to think that a door separated one thing from another, that behind it there was a different air, another order of things and that once gone through this door I would become different, if not completely – at least sufficiently so, to observe that this new order of things, this new air, had actually an effect on me. I have gone through this door anticipating what might have been behind it. Or, behind it I found nothing in particular.”
(Paul Goma (b.1935), dissident, writer)

AUTHORS:
Emil CIORAN, Mircea ELIADE, Paul GOMA, Eugene IONESCO, Anna de NOAILLES, Michael de ROMANIA, Ferdinand of ROMANIA

KEY WORDS:
dark, death, decadence, delusion, democracy, desire, devotion, dissident, doctor, door,