Quotes from Guy de Maupassant

May 16. I am ill, decidedly! I was so well last month! I am feverish, horribly feverish, or rather I am in a state of feverish enervation, which makes my mind suffer as much as my body. I have without ceasing the horrible sensation of some danger threatening me, the apprehension of some coming misfortune or of approaching death, a presentiment which is no doubt, an attack of some illness still unnamed, which germinates in the flesh and in the blood.

Il sentait vaguement des pensées lui venir ; il les aurait dites, peut-être, mais il ne les pouvait point formuler avec des mots écrits. Et son impuissance l'enfiévrant, il se leva de nouveau, les mains humides de sueur et le sang battant aux tempes.

Il revoyait en souvenir la jolie cité claire, dégringolant, comme une cascade de maisons plates, du haut de sa montagne dans la mer, mais il ne trouvait plus un mot pour exprimer ce qu'il avait vu, ce qu'il avait senti.

How strange it is that a simple feeling of discomfort, of impeded or heightened circulation, perhaps the irritation of a nervous center, a slight congestion, a small disturbance in the imperfect and delicate functions of our living machinery, can turn the most light-hearted of men into a melancholy one, and make a coward of the bravest?

Her husband was not malicious, but he did bully, though without anger or animosity, as do petty tyrants who think that giving orders means swearing. In front of any stranger he behaved himself, but in his family he let himself go and pretended to be terrible although he was really scared of everybody.

I told myself, "Everything is a being! The shout that passes into the air is an entity like an animal, since it is born, produces a movement, and is again transformed, in order to die.

Ja ta lisas nagu omaenese mõtte jätkuks: No näete nüüd, põle see elu ühti nii hea ega nii halb kui paistab.

Es evidente que la soledad resulta peligrosa para las mentes que piensan demasiado. Cuando permanecemos solos durante mucho tiempo, poblamos de fantasmas el vacío.

Varl???m?z s?ras?nda yaÅŸad???m?z en büyük ?st?rap ebediyen yaln?z olmam?zdan geliyor ve bütün çabam?z, bütün hareketlerimiz bu yaln?zl?ktan kaçmak için.

The words of love, which are always the same, take the taste of the lips they come from.

Amo la noche con pasión. La amo, como uno ama a su país o a su amante, con un amor instintivo, profundo, invencible. La amo con todos mis sentidos, con mis ojos que la ven, con mi olfato que la respira, con mis oídos, que escuchan su silencio, con toda mi carne que las tinieblas acarician.

Pero cuando el sol desciende, una confusa alegría invade todo mi cuerpo. Me despierto, me animo. A medida que crece la sombra me siento distinto, más joven, más fuerte, más activo, más feliz. La veo espesarse, dulce sombra caída del cielo: ahoga la ciudad como una ola inaprensible e impenetrable, oculta, borra, destruye los colores, las formas; oprime las casas, los seres, los monumentos, con su tacto imperceptible.

Hát minden csak nyomorúság, bánat, szerencsétlenség és halál? Mindenki csal, hazudik, szenvedést és könnyeket hoz? Hol találhatunk valamelyes nyugalmat és örömet? Bizonyára egy másik létben. Amikor a lélek megszabadul a földi megpróbáltatásoktól.

De oly mélységesen izgatottnak érezte magát, hogy fölmerült benne ez a kérdés: félhet-e az ember akarata ellenére? És elárasztotta lelkét ez a kétely, ez a nyugtalanság, ez a borzalom. Mi történik akkor, ha egy akaratánál erÅ'sebb, uralkodó és ellenállhatatlan hatalom legyÅ'zi? Igen, mi történik akkor?

The love between man and woman is a voluntary pact in which the one who falls short is only guilty of perfidy, but when a woman has become a mother her duty is greater because nature has entrusted the human species to her. If she fails then she is a coward, unworthy and infamous.

His generosity was his great strength and his great weakness; he had not enough hands to caress, to embrace, to give; it was the generosity of a creative power, without method and without toughness, which as it were sapped the muscles of his will and almost amounted to a vice.

La jeune fille se retrouvait dans ces histoires d'autrefois, s'étonnant de la similitude de leurs pensées, de la parenté de leurs désirs ; car chaque cÅ"ur s'imagine ainsi avoir tressailli avant tout autre sous une foule de sensations qui ont fait battre ceux des premières créatures et feront palpiter encore ceux des derniers hommes et des dernières femmes.

C'est pourtant fort bête d'être joyeux, à date fixe, par décret du gouvernement. Le peuple est un troupeau imbécile, tantôt stupidement patient et tantôt férocement révolté. (En parlant de la fête nationale et de ses festivités)

Have you read the Rougon-Macquart series?" "From first to last." "That's enough. Mention a painting from time to time, speak of a novel here and there and add: "'Superb! Extraordinary! Delightful technique! Wonderfully powerful!' In that way you can always get along. I know that those two are very blase about everything, but admiration always pleases an artist.

As her figure coarsened, her soul became ever more romantic, and when her corpulence riveted her to her chair, her imagination continued to wander through tender adventures, of which she was the heroine.

C'est pourtant fort bête d'être joyeux, à date fixe, par décret du gouvernement.

Le voyage est une espèce de porte par où l'on sort de la réalité connue pour pénétrer dans une réalité inexplorée qui semble un rêve.

Mathilde suffered ceaselessly, feeling herself born to enjoy all delicacies and all luxuries. She was distressed at the poverty of her dwelling, at the bareness of the walls, at the shabby chairs, the ugliness of the curtains. All those things, of which another woman of her rank would never even have been conscious, tortured her and made her angry.

Madame Chantal?a large woman whose ideas always strike me as being square-shaped, like stones dressed by a mason?was in the habit of concluding any political discussion with the remark: 'As ye sow, so shall ye reap'. Why have I always imagined that Madame Chantal's ideas are square? I've no idea, but everything she says goes into that shape in my mind: a block?a large one?with four symmetrical angles.