Quotes from Maurice Druon

Es error común de los humanos creer que el prójimo concede a su persona tanta importancia como cada uno se da a sí mismo; los demás, a no ser que tengan interés particular en el recuerdo, olvidan rápidamente lo que nos ha ocurrido, y si no lo han olvidado, su recuerdo no tiene la firmeza que imaginamos.

We are all apt to fall into the error of assuming that other people think we are as important as we do ourselves; but unless there is some particular reason for their remembering it, others forget what has happened to us very quickly; and, even if they have not forgotten, their memories attach much less weight to it than we are inclined to believe.

Power, without the consent of those over whom it is exercised, is a fraud that cannot long endure, a delicate balance between fear and rebellion, which may suddenly be overset when enough men become aware that they all think alike.

There are no advantageous defeats, but there can be disastrous victories. Few days in France's history have cost her so dear as Cassel, for it gave currency to a number of false ideas, such as that the new King was invincible, and that foot-soldiers were worthless in war. The defeat of Crécy, twenty years later, was the consequence of this illusion.

In every period, and in every country, there have always been two parties: the reactionary and the progressive.

El corazón le pesaba dentro del pecho y ni siquiera notaba cómo la cera goteaba en su mano.

Men who love power are not only dominated, as is generally supposed, by an appetite for wealth and honours. Above all they are influenced by an objective taste for the creation of events, for controlling their occurrence, for acting upon the world with effectiveness and for being always in the right. Wealth and honours are no more than the signs and tools of their influence.

Because chance infidelities do not prevent one thinking, indeed rather the contrary, of the person to whom one is being unfaithful; indeed it is the most frequent manner of being faithful that men have.