Men and women are not born inconstant: they are made so by their

Hear the wisdom of André Maurois, who proclaimed: “Men and women are not born inconstant: they are made so by their early amorous experiences.” In this saying lies the truth that the heart is not fickle by nature, but shaped and scarred by the encounters of youth. For constancy is a seed within every soul, yet the storms of first love often bruise it before it can take root.

To be inconstant is to wander from affection to affection, unable to remain steadfast. Maurois declares that this is not the birthright of man or woman, but the product of early amorous experiences. When the first touch of love is betrayal, when trust is broken in youth, the heart learns caution, then doubt, and at last restlessness. Inconstancy becomes armor, not nature.

The ancients knew this truth well, for the poets of Greece and Rome sang of love’s first wound—the arrow of Eros that burned too quickly, the passion of desire that consumed rather than nurtured. It was in such beginnings that many souls were taught to fear constancy, for to love deeply was to risk deeply, and so they sought safety in fleeting affections.

Yet Maurois does not speak to condemn, but to explain. He unmasks the illusion that faithlessness is destiny, reminding us that it is instead the fruit of experience. If men and women are taught by betrayal, they may become wanderers in love; but if they are nurtured with fidelity, trust, and patience, they may grow into steadfast companions.

Thus let this teaching be handed down: do not call the heart naturally inconstant, for it is shaped by what it suffers and what it receives. Guard the early experiences of love, for they plant the seeds of what the soul will become. And remember always that though the past may shape us, it need not chain us—for constancy, once chosen, can be reclaimed, and faith in love restored.