Henri-Benjamin Constant de Rebecque was a Swiss-born, nobleman, thinker, writer and French politician.
Constant was born in Lausanne, Switzerland, to descendants of noble Huguenots who fled France during the Huguenot wars in the early 16th century to settle in Lausanne. He was educated by private tutors and at the University of Erlangen, Bavaria, and the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. In the course of his life, he spent many years in France, Switzerland, Germany, and Great Britain.
He was intimate with Anne Louise Germaine de Staël and their intellectual collaboration made them one of the most important intellectual pairs of their time. He was a fervent liberal, fought against the Restauration and was active in French politics as a publicist and politician during the latter half of the French Revolution and between 1815 and 1830. During part of this latter period, he sat in the Chamber of Deputies, the lower legislative house of the Restoration-era government. He was one of its most eloquent orators and a leader of the parliamentary block first known as the Independants and then as "liberals."
Le Cahier rouge: "Je suis né le 25 octobre 1767, à Lausanne, en Suisse, de Henriette de Chandieu, de une ancienne famille française réfugiée dans le pays de Vaud pour cause de religion, et de Juste Constant de Rebecque, colonial dans un régiment suisse au service de Hollande. Ma mère mourat en couches huit jours après ma naissance." p. 149 The story of Benjamin Constant's youth, the round of tutors, no mention of mothers or stepmothers, just his father. He is often left to his own devices and gets himself in trouble through affairs with women (often older than he) and gambling. 1807 but Published posthumously 1907
Un beau livre sur la psychologie d'un indécis. L'amour fait brûler le cœur puis le rend faible, si faible que la pitié pour l'être anciennement aimé remplace tout autre sentiment à l'heure du dépérissement.
Les dynamiques s'échangent et chez certains, ne se rencontrent jamais. Alors tout quitter devient la pire décision de l'être aimant. Certes, l'amour est inégal, mais poussée à son paroxysme, cette inégalité prolonge le "perpétuel orage".