Maurice Maeterlinck Playwright

Gender: Male
Citizenship: Belgium
Born: Aug 29, 1862
Died: May 6, 1949

Maurice Polydore Marie Bernard Maeterlinck was a Belgian playwright, poet, and essayist who was a Fleming, but wrote in French. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1911 "in appreciation of his many-sided literary activities, and especially of his dramatic works, which are distinguished by a wealth of imagination and by a poetic fancy, which reveals, sometimes in the guise of a fairy tale, a deep inspiration, while in a mysterious way they appeal to the readers' own feelings and stimulate their imaginations". The main themes in his work are death and the meaning of life. His plays form an important part of the Symbolist movement.

All our knowledge merely helps us to die a more painful death than animals that know nothing. death & knowledge

It is not from reason that justice springs, but goodness is born of wisdom. wisdom

At every crossroads on the path that leads to the future, tradition has placed 10,000 men to guard the past. future & men

Many a happiness in life, as many a disaster, can be due to chance, but the peace within us can never be governed by chance. happiness & peace

Happiness is rarely absent it is we that know not of its presence. happiness

When we lose one we love, our bitterest tears are called forth by the memory of hours when we loved not enough. love

We possess only the happiness we are able to understand. happiness

We are never the same with others as when we are alone. We are different, even when we are in the dark with them. alone

Remember that happiness is as contagious as gloom. It should be the first duty of those who are happy to let others know of their gladness. happiness

An act of goodness is of itself an act of happiness. No reward coming after the event can compare with the sweet reward that went with it. happiness