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Guy de Maupassant
34 quotes
“I entered literary life as a meteor, and I shall leave it like a thunderbolt.”
Guy de Maupassant (1850–1893) said by 1893 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 need of work is in me.”
Guy de Maupassant (1850–1893) said by 1893 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Contemporary Portraits (1920) by Frank Harris, p. 263
“I have come to the conclusion that the bed comprehends our whole life; for we were born in it, we live in it, and we shall die in it.”
Guy de Maupassant (1850–1893) said by 1893 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I took the book from him reverently, and I gazed at these forms incomprehensible to me, but which revealed the immortal thoughts of the greatest shatterer of dreams who had ever dwelt on earth.”
Guy de Maupassant (1850–1893) said by 1893 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Great minds that are healthy are never considered geniuses, while this sublime qualification is lavished on brains that are often inferior but are slightly touched by madness.”
Guy de Maupassant (1850–1893) said by 1893 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Let them respect my convictions, and I will respect theirs!”
Guy de Maupassant (1850–1893) said by 1893 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
Guy de Maupassant (1850–1893) said by 1893 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
Guy de Maupassant (1850–1893) said by 1893 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Love is always love, come whence it may. A heart that beats at your approach, an eye that weeps when you go away are things so rare, so sweet, so precious that they must never be despised.”
Guy de Maupassant (1850–1893) said by 1893 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Patriotism is a kind of religion; it is the egg from which wars are hatched.”
Guy de Maupassant (1850–1893) said by 1893 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A man forced to spend his life without ever having the right, without ever finding the time, to shut himself up all alone, no matter where, to think, to reflect, to work, to dream? Ah! my dear boy, a key, the key of a door which one can lock — this is happiness, mark you, the only happiness!”
Guy de Maupassant (1850–1893) said by 1893 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our memory is a more perfect world than the universe: it gives back life to those who no longer exist.”
Guy de Maupassant (1850–1893) said by 1893 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A legal kiss is never as good as a stolen one.”
Guy de Maupassant (1850–1893) said by 1893 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For several days in succession fragments of a defeated army had passed through the town. They were mere disorganized bands, not disciplined forces. The men wore long, dirty beards and tattered uniforms; they advanced in listless fashion, without a flag, without a leader. All seemed exhausted, worn out, incapable of thought or resolve, marching onward merely by force of habit, and dropping to the ground with fatigue the moment they halted.”
Guy de Maupassant (1850–1893) said by 1893 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Life seemed to have stopped short; the shops were shut, the streets deserted. Now and then an inhabitant, awed by the silence, glided swiftly by in the shadow of the walls. The anguish of suspense made men even desire the arrival of the enemy.”
Guy de Maupassant (1850–1893) said by 1893 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“At the end of a short time, once the first terror had subsided, calm was again restored. In many houses the Prussian officer ate at the same table with the family. He was often well-bred, and, out of politeness, expressed sympathy with France and repugnance at being compelled to take part in the war. This sentiment was received with gratitude; besides, his protection might be needful some day or other.”
Guy de Maupassant (1850–1893) said by 1893 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Legitimized love always despises its easygoing brother.”
Guy de Maupassant (1850–1893) said by 1893 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the cold light of the morning they almost bore a grudge against the girl for not having secretly sought out the Prussian, that the rest of the party might receive a joyful surprise when they awoke. What more simple? Besides, who would have been the wiser? She might have saved appearances by telling the officer that she had taken pity on their distress. Such a step would be of so little consequence to her. But no one as yet confessed to such thoughts.”
Guy de Maupassant (1850–1893) said by 1893 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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?”
Guy de Maupassant (1850–1893) said by 1893 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“At first no one spoke. Boule de Suif dared not even raise her eyes. She felt at once indignant with her neighbors, and humiliated at having yielded to the Prussian into whose arms they had so hypocritically cast her.”
Guy de Maupassant (1850–1893) said by 1893 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No one looked at her, no one thought of her. She felt herself swallowed up in the scorn of these virtuous creatures, who had first sacrificed, then rejected her as a thing useless and unclean.”
Guy de Maupassant (1850–1893) said by 1893 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
Guy de Maupassant (1850–1893) said by 1893 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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. Mathilde suffered ceaselessly, feeling herself born to enjoy all delicacies and all luxuries.”
Guy de Maupassant (1850–1893) said by 1893 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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!”
Guy de Maupassant (1850–1893) said by 1893 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I did not love her, I did not even know her. And for all that, I was touched and conquered. I wanted to save her, to sacrifice myself for her, to commit a thousand follies! Strange thing! How does it happen that the presence of a woman overwhelms us so? Is it the power of her grace which enfolds us? Is it the seduction of her beauty and youth, which intoxicates one like wine? Is it not rather the touch of Love, of Love the Mysterious, who seeks constantly to unite two beings, who tries his strength the instant he has put a man and a woman face to face?”
Guy de Maupassant (1850–1893) said by 1893 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I was hard hit. I wanted to ask this little girl to marry me. If we had passed eight days together, I should have done so! How weak and incomprehensible a man sometimes is!”
Guy de Maupassant (1850–1893) said by 1893 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
Guy de Maupassant (1850–1893) said by 1893 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We live always under the weight of the old and odious customs … of our barbarous ancestors.”
Guy de Maupassant (1850–1893) said by 1893 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Military men are the scourges of the world.”
Guy de Maupassant (1850–1893) said by 1893 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
Guy de Maupassant (1850–1893) said by 1893 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Any government has as much of a duty to avoid war as a ship's captain has to avoid a shipwreck.”
Guy de Maupassant (1850–1893) said by 1893 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Let us protest and let us be angry, let us be indignant, or let us be enthusiastic, Schopenhauer has marked humanity with the seal of his disdain and of his disenchantment. A disabused pleasure-seeker, he overthrew beliefs, hopes, poetic ideals and chimeras, destroyed the aspirations, ravaged the confidence of souls, killed love, dragged down the chivalrous worship of women, crushed the illusions of hearts, and accomplished the most gigantic task ever attempted by scepticism. He spared nothing with his mocking spirit, and exhausted everything. And even to-day those who execrate him seem to carry in their own souls particles of his thought.”
Guy de Maupassant (1850–1893) said by 1893 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
Guy de Maupassant (1850–1893) said by 1893 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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. All was said with due restraint and regard for propriety, the effect heightened now and then by an outburst of forced enthusiasm calculated to excite emulation. A listener would have thought at last that the one role of woman on earth was a perpetual sacrifice of her person, a continual abandonment of herself to the caprices of a hostile soldiery. The two nuns seemed to hear nothing, and to be lost in thought. Boule de Suif also was silent.”
Guy de Maupassant (1850–1893) said by 1893 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source