# Quote — Marguerite Yourcenar, Memoirs of Hadrian

> Our civil laws will never be supple enough to fit the immense and changing variety of facts. Laws change more slowly than custom, and though dangerous when they fall behind the times are more dangerous still when they presume to anticipate custom.

- Author: [Marguerite Yourcenar](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marguerite-yourcenar.md)
- Book: [Memoirs of Hadrian](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marguerite-yourcenar/memoirs-of-hadrian.md)
- Page: 113
- Original (fr): Nos lois civiles ne seront jamais assez souples pour s'adapter à l'immense et fluide variété des faits. Elles changent moins vite que les moeurs; dangereuses quand elles retardent sur celles-ci, elles le sont davantage quand elles se mêlent de les précéder.
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Marguerite_Yourcenar#Memoirs_of_Hadrian_(1951)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/marguerite-yourcenar/memoirs-of-hadrian/our-civil-laws

## More from this book

> There is more than one kind of wisdom, and all are essential in the world; it is not bad that they should alternate.

p. 270 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marguerite-yourcenar/memoirs-of-hadrian/there-is-more.md)

> Any law too often subject to infraction is bad; it is the duty of the legislator to repeal or change it.

p. 113 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marguerite-yourcenar/memoirs-of-hadrian/any-law-too.md)

> Nothing is slower than the true birth of a man.

p. 258 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marguerite-yourcenar/memoirs-of-hadrian/nothing-is-slower.md)