Quotes from Guy de Maupassant

Egyedül a halál bizonyos.

Be it so; but if you drive me to extremity, take care,—it is not always safe to make a woman desperate.

Ennek a reggelnek tiszta fényében szívük egymás hangját visszhangozta.

Nem nehéz dolog m?velt embernek látszani, annyi az egész mesterség, hogy ne fogasd rajta magadat valami tudatlanságon. Az ember manÅ'verezik, elsikkasztja a nehézségeket, megkerüli az akadályokat, s egy lexikon segítségével lefÅ'z mindenkit. Minden ember olyan buta, mint a liba, és olyan tudatlan, mint a szamár.

Bisognerebbe amare, amare follemente, senza vedere ciò che si ama. Perché vedere è comprendere, e comprendere è disprezzare.

I ask myself whether I am mad. As I was walking just now in the sun by the riverside, doubts as to my own sanity arose in me; not vague doubts such as I have had hitherto, but precise and absolute doubts. I have seen mad people, and I have known some who were quite intelligent, lucid, even clear-sighted in every concern of life, except on one point.

As the boat bounced from the top of each wave, the wind tore through the hair of the hatless men, and as the craft plopped her stern down again the spray slashed past them. The crest of each of these waves was a hill, from the top of which the men surveyed, for a moment, a broad tumultuous expanse, shining and wind-riven. It was probably splendid. It was probably glorious, this play of the free sea, wild with lights of emerald and white and amber.

Similar phenomena occur in dreams, and lead us through the most unlikely phantasmagoria, without causing us any surprise, because our verifying apparatus and our sense of control have gone to sleep, while our imaginative faculty wakes and works.

Olyan mélységes és olyan szomorú azoknak a szobáknak a csöndje, ahol egyedül él az ember. Nemcsak a testet, a lelket is körülfogja ez a csönd; amikor egy bútor megreccsen, szíve mélyéig megremeg az ember, mert semmi zajra nem volt elkészülve a komor lakásban.

I should add, however, by way of justification of French politeness, that our fellow-countrymen are, when travelling, models of good manners in comparison with the abominable English, who seem to have been brought up in a stable, so careful are they not to discommode themselves in any way, while they always discommode their neighbors.

Le baiser frappe comme la foudre, l'amour passe comme un orage, puis la vie, de nouveau, se calme comme le ciel, et recommence ainsi qu'avant. Se souvient- on d'un nuage ?

kad du žmon?s niekada negali prasiskverbti iki vienas kito sielos, iki min?i? gelmi?, kad jie gali eiti šalia vienas kito, kartais apsikabin?, bet ne susiliej?, ir kad dvasin? m?s? esm? vis? gyvenim? klaidžioja vieniša.

The father was long and thin, with a red face framed in white whiskers, and looking like a living sandwich, a piece of ham carved like a face between two wads of hair.

Travel, like dreams, is a door that opens from the real world into a world that is yet to be discovered

Love always has its price, come whence it may.

Legitimized love always despises its easygoing brother.

What you love too violently finishes by killing you.

Patriotism is a kind of religion; it is the egg from which wars are hatched.

Every government has as much of a duty to avoid war as a ship's captain has to avoid a shipwreck.

Get black on white.

Anguish of suspense made men even desire the arrival of enemies.

In the East men know panic, but they do not know what fright is.

A sick thought can devour the body's flesh more than fever or consumption.

Conversation… is the art of never appearing a bore, of knowing how to say everything interestingly, to entertain with no matter what, to be charming with nothing at all.