Quotes from Prosper Mérimée

I'll follow you, even to death—but I won't live with you any more.

Carmen will always be free.

She lied, sir. She has always lied. I don't think she ever spoke a word of truth. But when she spoke, I believed her.

Me dicas vriardâ de jorpoy, bus ne sino braco. (proverbe bohémien: Je suis habillée de laine, mais je ne suis pas mouton.)

She had a strange, wild beauty, a face that was disconcerting at first, but unforgettable. Her eyes in particular had an expression, at once voluptuous and fierce, that I have never seen on any human face. 'Gypsy's eye, wolf's eye' is a phrase Spaniards apply to people with keen powers of observation.

The dog and the wolf can't agree for long.

The woman was plodding laboriously forward, bent beneath the weight of an enormous sack of chestnuts, while her husband sauntered along with only a rifle in his hand, and another slung over his shoulder; for it is unbecoming for a man to carry any burden but his weapons.

Sir, a man may turn rogue in sheer thoughtlessness. You lose your head over a pretty girl, you fight another man about her, there is a catastrophe, you have to take to the mountains, and you turn from a smuggler into a robber before you have time to think about it.

The adjutant was a distant relative of Falcone. (It is a well-known fact that in Corsica degrees of kinship are traced much further back than is the case elsewhere.) His name was Tiodoro Gamba. He was a zealous man, much feared by the bandits, several of whom he had already tracked down.

Yes, I'll follow you, even to death - but I won't live with you any more.

I don't love you any more. You love me still, and that is why you want to kill me.

Il est plus facile d'être brave en paroles qu'en actions.

Yalan söylüyordu beyefendi, hep yalan söyledi. O k?z hayat?nda tek bir do?ru söz etti mi bilmiyorum. Fakat ben o ne dese inan?yordum, elimde de?ildi.

Žinokite, kad nieko n?ra ?prastesnio, kaip daryti blog? iš malonumo j? daryti.

Between closed lips no fly can pass.

Il y a toujours quelque chose de solennel dans un départ, même quand on se quitte pour peu de temps.

Ciudat? e mila omeneasc?, ce nu face decât s?-?i prelungeasc? suferin?a!

Verrete perché io vi sto aspettando»; "Vi potrò vedere o no? That is the question: per conto mio, so bene come risolverla; ma siete voi a non volervi decidere. Ondeggiate, come ondeggerete tutta la vita, fra il vostro carattere di civetta e le abitudini di convento; tutto il male viene da lì".

This kind of dense brushwood is known as maquis It is made up of various species of tree and shrub, tangled and intertwined at Nature's whim. A man would need an axe to force a way through, and sometimes the maquis can be so dense and overgrown that even the wild sheep cannot penetrate it. If you have killed a man, go to the maquis above Porto-Vecchio, and you will be able to live in safety there, with a good rifle, gunpowder, and bullets.

The shepherds will give you milk, cheese, and chestnuts; and you will have nothing to fear from the law or from the dead man's relatives, except when you have to go down to the town to replenish your ammunition.