Honore de
Honore de
ideas paris pet
Virtue, my pet, is an abstract idea, varying in its manifestations with the surroundings. Virtue in Provence, in Constantinople, in London, and in Paris bears very different fruit, but is none the less virtue.
marriage mother country
To have one's mother-in-law in the country when one lives in Paris, and vice versa, is one of those strokes of luck that one encounters only too rarely.
success mistake ambition
Ambitious men spend their youth in rendering themselves worthy of patronage; it is their great mistake. While the foolish creatures are laying in stores of knowledge and energy, so that they shall not sink under the weight of responsible posts that recede from them, schemers come and go who are wealthy in words and destitute of ideas, astonish the ignorant, and creep into the confidence of those who have a little knowledge.
family country strong
A country is strong which consists of wealthy families, every member of whom is interested in defending a common treasure; it is weak when composed of scattered individuals, to whom it matters little whether they obey seven or one, a Russian or a Corsican, so long as each keeps his own plot of land, blind in their wretched egotism, to the fact that the day is coming when this too will be torn from them.
way mark anxious
Love passes quickly, and passes like a street Arab, anxious to mark his way with mischief.
atheist atheism
A society of atheists would immediately invent a religion.
light shining noble
Conviction brings a silent, indefinable beauty into faces made of the commonest human clay; the devout worshiper at any shrine reflects something of its golden glow, even as the glory of a noble love shines like a sort of light from a woman's face.
love love-is harmony
Love is the most melodious of all harmonies.
motherhood mood save-nature
What is motherhood save Nature in her most gladsome mood?
heart white-hair age
White hair often covers the head, but the heart that holds it is ever young.
art poetry vision
All poetry like every work of art proceeds from a swift vision of things.
poverty cease avarice
Where poverty ceases, avarice begins.
women keyboards study
Woman is a delightful instrument of pleasure, but it is necessary to know its trembling strings, to study the position of them, the timid keyboard, the fingering so changeful and capricious which befits it.
women passion europe
Creole women take after Europe in their intelligence, after the Tropics in the illogical violence of their passions, and after the Indies in the apathetic indolence with which they commit or suffer good and evil.