Great Throughts Treasury

"She was simple, not being able to adorn herself, but she was unhappy, as one out of her class; for women belong to no caste, no race, their grace, their beauty and their charm serving them in place of birth and family. Their inborn finesse, their instinctive elegance, their suppleness of wit are their only aristocracy, making some daughters of the people the equal of great ladies."

"She was the temptress who had ensnared the first man, and who still continued her work at damnation; she was the being who is feeble, dangerous, mysteriously troubling. And even more than her body of perdition, he hated her loving soul."

"She was one of those pretty and charming girls, born by a blunder of destiny in a family of employees. She had no dowry, no expectations, no means of being known, understood, loved, married by a man rich and distinguished; and she let them make a match for her with a little clerk in the Department of Education."

"She was, in fact, one of those people of exalted principles, one of those opinionated Puritans, of Which England produces so many, one of those good and insupportable old maids who haunt the tables d'hote of every hotel in Europe, who spoil Italy, poison Switzerland, render the charming cities of the Mediterranean uninhabitable, carry everywhere their fantastic manias, their manners of petrified vestals, toilets and a certain their indescribable odor of India-rubber that which makes one believe at night they are slipped into the rubber casing."

"Since governments take the right of death over their people, it is not astonishing if the people should sometimes take the right of death over governments."

"Solitude is dangerous for active minds. We need men who can think and can talk, around us. When we are alone for a long time, we people space with phantoms."

"That was perhaps the only woman I have ever loved ? no ? that I ever should have loved. Ah, well! who can tell? Circumstances rule one. And then ? and then ? all passes."

"The count uttered several rather risky witticisms, but so tactfully were they said that his audience could not help smiling. Loiseau in turn made some considerably broader jokes, but no one took offence; and the thought expressed with such brutal directness by his wife was uppermost in the minds of all: "Since it's the girl's trade, why should she refuse this man more than another?""

"Solitude is indeed dangerous for a working intelligence. We need to have around us people who think and speak. When we are alone for a long time we people the void with phantoms."

"The essence of life is the smile of round female bottoms, under the shadow of cosmic boredom."

"The great artists are those who impose their personal vision upon humanity."

"The moon, which was in her last quarter and was inclining all to one side, seemed fainting in the midst of space, so weak that she was unable to wane, forced to stay up yonder, seized and paralyzed by the severity of the weather. She shed a cold, mournful light over the world, that dying and wan light which she gives us every month, at the end of her period."

"The girl was one of those pretty and charming young creatures who sometimes are born, as if by a slip of fate, into a family of clerks. She had no dowry, no expectations, no way of being known, understood, loved, married by any rich and distinguished man; so she let herself be married to a little clerk of the Ministry of Public Instruction."

"The kiss itself is immortal. It travels from lip to lip, century to century, from age to age. Men and women garner these kisses, offer them to others and then die in turn."

"The matter had to be Settled Immediately, without delaying another day, for at times He felt too imperious year Need for instant solutions, which is all the weak are capable of, given their inability to sustain year effort of will."

"The same thing happens whenever the established order of things is upset, when security no longer exists, when all those rights usually protected by the law of man or of Nature are at the mercy of unreasoning, savage force. The earthquake crushing a whole nation under falling roofs; the flood let loose, and engulfing in its swirling depths the corpses of drowned peasants, along with dead oxen and beams torn from shattered houses; or the army, covered with glory, murdering those who defend themselves, making prisoners of the rest, pillaging in the name of the Sword, and giving thanks to God to the thunder of cannon ? all these are appalling scourges, which destroy all belief in eternal justice, all that confidence we have been taught to feel in the protection of Heaven and the reason of man."

"The simplest of women are wonderful liars who can extricate themselves from the most difficult dilemmas with a skill bordering on genius."

"The secret is not to betray your ignorance. Just maneuver, avoid the quicksands and obstacles, and the rest can be found in a dictionary."

"The only certainty is death."

"The past attracts me, the present frightens me, because the future is death."

"The two nuns seemed to hear nothing, and to be lost in thought. Boule de Suif also was silent."

"There are in France some fifty thousand young men of good birth and fairly well off who are encouraged to live a life of complete idleness. They must either cease to exist or must come to see that there can be no happiness, no health even, without regular daily labor of some sort."

"The vases river burying these dark vengeance, wild and legitimate unknown heroism, silent attacks, more dangerous than battles in broad daylight and without the impact of glory. For hatred of the foreigner ever arms a few Intrepid ready to die for an Idea."

"There is only one good thing in life, and that is love. And how you misunderstand it! how you spoil it! You treat it as something solemn like a sacrament, or something to be bought, like a dress."

"There were round him some children playing in the dust on the paths. They had long fair hair, and with very earnest faces and solemn care were making little mountains of sand so as to stamp on 'em and squash' em underfoot. Peter was going through one of those gloomy days when one looks into every corner of one's soul and shakes out every crease. 'Our occupations are like the work of those kids,' he thought. Then he wondered whether after all the wisest course in life was not to beget two or three of these little useless beings and watch 'em grow complacent with curiosity. And he was touched by the desire to marry. You are not so lost when you're not alone any more. At any rate you can hear somebody moving near you in times of worry and uncertainty, and anyway it is something to be able to say words of love to a woman when you are feeling down. He began thinking about women. His knowledge of 'em was very limited, as all he had had in the affairs of Latin quarter was a fortnight or so, dropped when the month's money ran out and picked up again or mittal the following month. Yet kind, gentle, consoling creatures must exist. Had not his own mother brought sweet reasonableness and charm to his father's home? How he loved would have to meet a woman, a real woman! He leaped up, Determined to go and pay a little visit to Mrs. Rosemilly. Goal Quickly he sat down again. No, he did not like that one!"

"These six people formed the bottom of the car, the side of the company rent‚e, serene and strong, honest people who have allowed religion and principles."

"Think of that, young man. Think of it for days, and months and years, and life will seem different to you. Try to get away from all the things that shut you in. Make a superhuman effort to emerge alive from your own body, from your own interests, from your thoughts, from humanity in general, so your eyes that may be turned in the opposite direction. Then you understand how unimportant is the quarrel between romanticism and realism, or the budget debates."

"This beast and still growing and inexplicable fear became terror. I stood motionless, eyes open, listening and waiting. What? I did not know, but it would be terrible."

"This was the first living creature I Had ever loved passionately, Because He returned my affection. My love for the animal was, no doubt, exaggerated and ridiculous. I has that vague idea in some way we were brothers, both, lost in life, both, lonely and defenseless. He never left me, slept at foot of my bed, was fed in the dining-room in Spite of my relatives' protests and he came with me on my solitary walks."

"There are some delightful places in this world which have a sensual charm for the eyes. One loves them with a physical love. We people who are attracted by the countryside cherish fond memories of certain springs, certain woods, certain ponds, certain hills, which have become familiar sights and can touch our hearts like happy events. Sometimes indeed the memory goes back towards a forest glade, or a spot on a river bank or an orchard in blossom, glimpsed only once on a happy day, but preserved in our heart."

"There is only one good thing in life, and that is love."

"To avoid each other, their eyes had developed an amazing mobility with all the cunning of enemies fearful of meeting each other head on."

"Truly, a man without a mustache is not a man."

"War! When I but think of this word, I feel bewildered, as though they were speaking to me of sorcery, of the Inquisition, of a distant, finished, abominable, monstrous, unnatural thing. When they speak to us of cannibals, we smile proudly, as we proclaim our superiority to these savages. Who are the real savages? Those who struggle in order to eat those whom they vanquish, or those who struggle merely to kill?"

"We are, on earth, two distinct races. Those who have need of others, whom others amuse, engage soothe, whom solitude harasses, pains, stupefies, like the movement of a terrible glacier or the traversing of the desert; and those, on the contrary, whom others weary, tire, bore, silently torture, whom isolation calms and bathes in the repose of independency, and plunges into the humors of their own thoughts. In fine, there is here a normal, physical phenomenon. Some are constituted to live a life outside of themselves, others, to live a life within themselves. As for me, my exterior associations are abruptly and painfully short-lived, and, as they reach their limits, I experience in my whole body and in my whole intelligence an intolerable uneasiness."

"We breathe, sleep, drink, eat, work and then die! The end of life is death. What do you long for? Love? A few kisses and you will be powerless. Money? What for? To gratify your desires. Glory? What comes after it all? Death! Death alone is certain."

"We live always under the weight of the old and odious customs... of our barbarous ancestors."

"What would have happened if she had not lost that necklace? Who knows? Who knows? How strange and changeful is life! How small a thing is needed to make or ruin us!"

"Whatever we may do or attempt, despite the embrace and transports of love, the hunger of the lips, we are always alone. I have dragged you out into the night in the vain hope of a moment's escape from the horrible solitude which overpowers me. But what is the use! I speak and you answer me, and still each of us is alone; side by side but alone."

"This painful oppression, the malaise of the soul that leaves us grief on which we slept. It seems that misfortune, which shock us just hit the day before, or slides during our rest, in our flesh itself, it bruises and fatigue as a fever."

"They held up to admiration all those women who from time to time have arrested the victorious progress of conquerors, made of their bodies a field of battle, a means of ruling, a weapon; who have vanquished by their heroic caresses hideous or detested beings, and sacrificed their chastity to vengeance and devotion."

"Whatever you want to say, there is only one noun to express it, one verb to animate it and one adjective to qualify it."

"Why does one love? How queer it is to see only one being in the world, to have only one thought in one's mind, only one desire in the heart, and only one name on the lips--a name which comes up continually, rising, like the water in a spring, from the depths of the soul to the lips, a name which one repeats over and over again, which one whispers ceaselessly, everywhere, like a prayer."

"Why not other elements besides fire, air, earth and water? There are four of Them, just four, Those foster parents of Beings! What a pity! Why are not there forty elements INSTEAD, or four hundred, or four Thousand? How paltry everything is, how miserly, how wretched! Given stingily, aridly invented, heavily made! Why not other elements besides fire, air, earth and water? There are four of Them, just four, Those foster parents of Beings! What a pity! Why are not there forty elements INSTEAD, or four hundred, or four Thousand? How paltry everything is, how miserly, how wretched! Given stingily, aridly invented, heavily made ??"

"With women there is neither caste nor rank, for beauty, grace and charm take the place of family and birth. Natural ingenuity, instinct for what is elegant, a supple mind are their sole hierarchy, and often make of women of the people the equals of the very greatest ladies."

"You have the army of mediocrities followed by the multitude of fools. As the mediocrities and the fools always form the immense majority, it is impossible for them to elect an intelligent government."

"You've never lived until you've almost died. For those who have fought for it, life has a flavor the protected shall never know."

"Why is it a shame for me to cause them to die and try to exterminate them, tell me? You did not talk that way when you used to come to my house in Jeanne-d'Arc street. Ah! it is a shame! You have not done as much, with your cross of honor! I deserve more merit than you, do you understand, more than you, for I have killed more Prussians than you!"

"Words dazzle and deceive because they are mimed by the face. But black words on a white page are the soul laid bare."