Quote from her letter to her friend Mallarmé 1882; as cited in The Correspondence of Berthe Morisot, ed. Denis Rouart; Camden, London 1986 / Kinston, R. I. Moyer Bell, 1989, p. 160
• after her visit to Italy
“

The touch, sure and light [is] fixing something of the passing moment.. ..memory is the true, imperishable life, that which has sunk without trace and been forgotten was not worth experiencing, the sweet hours, and the great and dread, are immutable. Dreams are life itself – and dreams are more true than reality; in them we behave as our true selves – if we have a soul it is there.

— Berthe Morisot

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "The touch, sure and light [is] fixing something of the passing moment.. ..memory is the true, imperishable life, that which has sunk without trace and been forgotten was not worth experiencing, the sweet hours, and the great and dread, are immutable. Dreams are life itself – and dreams are more true than reality; in them we behave as our true selves – if we have a soul it is there." in the context of "Quote from her letter to her friend Mallarmé 1882; as cited in The Correspondence of Berthe Morisot, ed. Denis Rouart; Camden, London 1986 / Kinston, R. I. Moyer Bell, 1989, p. 160
• after her visit to Italy" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "Berthe Morisot" (Quotes, 1880s) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Berthe Morisot

About Berthe Morisot

Berthe Marie Pauline Morisot (14 January, 1841 – 2 March, 1895) was a French painter and a member of the circle of painters in Paris who became known as the Impressionists. Undervalued for over a century, possibly because she was a woman, she is now considered among the first league of Impressionist painters.