quote · Words worth keeping
Happiness is a masterpiece: the slightest error compromises it, the slightest hesitation undermines it, the slightest excess corrupts it, the slightest vulgarity defiles it.
Happiness is a masterpiece: the slightest error compromises it, the slightest hesitation undermines it, the slightest excess corrupts it, the slightest vulgarity defiles it.
Approximate author period: c. 1945 AD · modern
Meaning not yet available
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Browse entries with explanations and examples ↗Attribution & collection notes
- Author or tradition
- Marguerite Yourcenar
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin. - Historical period
- Approximate author period: c. 1945 AD · modern
Approximate period for the recorded attribution to Marguerite Yourcenar, based on documented lifetime 1903 to 1987. Source: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q163118 (checked 2026-10-08). This is not a quotation composition date or independent authentication of its attribution. Source: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q163118 (accessed 2026-10-08).
An author lifetime, approximate period or collection date is not necessarily the date when these words were first written or spoken. - Recorded source
- Contributor-provided quotation collection
Supplied reference C; CSV row 24828; supplied attribution, independently unverified
A collection's publication date can be later than the words it records.
