Honore de
Honore de
doe martyr great-writers
A great writer is nothing less than a martyr who does not die.
solitude labor
Now literary success can only be won in solitude by persevering labor.
two people sublime
Like most young people, these two attributed to the world their own intelligence and virtues. Youth who knows no failure has no mercy on the faults of other people; but it has also a sublime faith in them.
mean men law
Genius is answerable only to itself; it is the sole judge of the means, since it alone knows the end; thus genius must consider itself as above the law, for it is the task of genius to remake the law; moreover the man who frees himself from his time and place may take everything, hazard everything, for everything is his by right.
mind great-minds virtue
Great minds always tend to see virtue in misfortune.
people mind noble
For young people always begin by loving exaggeration, that infirmity of noble minds.
poverty avarice-greed ends
For avarice begins where poverty ends.
monsters familiarity
A monster which devours everything - that is familiarity.
turkeys
When in Turkey, do as the turkeys do.
love-is dupes flattery
True love is mixed up with birdlike squabbles, in which the disputants wound each other to the quick; but a quarrel without animus is, on the contrary, apiece of flattery to the dupe's conceit.
Love which economizes is never true love.
giving deals
The woman you buy takes a great deal of money. The woman who gives herself to you takes all your money.
surprise surprise-me
Nothing about me surprises me.
lying men yes-i-can
Yes, I can understand that a man might go to a gambling table when he sees that all that lies between him and death is his last crown.