# Quote — Marguerite Yourcenar, Memoirs of Hadrian

> The true birthplace is that wherein for the first time one looks intelligently upon oneself; my first homelands have been books.

- 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: 33
- Original (fr): Le véritable lieu de naissance est celui où l'on a porté pour la première fois un coup d'oeil intelligent sur soi-même: mes premières patries ont été des livres.
- 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/the-true-birthplace

## 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)

> 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.

p. 113 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marguerite-yourcenar/memoirs-of-hadrian/our-civil-laws.md)