Honore de
Honore de
promise fifteen talent
At fifteen, neither beauty nor talent exist: a woman is all promise.
men possession
Women are happy to possess a man whom all women covet.
blow wind mobility
Poles offer a mobility like that of the wind that blows over the immense plains and marches of Poland. Show a Pole a precipice, and he will leap headlong over it.
two kind poet
There are two kinds of poets: those who feel and those who express themselves. The former are happier.
men order color
Poets and men of action differ: the former yield to their feelings in order to reproduce them in lively colors, and therefore judge only ex post facto; the latter feel and judge at one and the same time.
men poet
Are not poets men who fulfill their hopes prematurely?
journey poetry painful
Poetry is only born after painful journeys into the vast regions of thought.
poetry sorrow radiance
It is very difficult to pass from pleasure to work. Accordingly more poems have been swallowed up by sorrow than ever happiness caused to blaze forth in unparalleled radiance.
happiness marriage couple
Among even the happiest married couples there are always moments of regret.
lovers break scoundrels
Whereas scoundrels become reconciled after knifing one another, lovers break up irrevocably over a mere glance or word.
past icy snuff
Many of us marvel at the icy insensitivity with which women snuff out their armours. But if they did not blot out the past in this manner, life for them would lose all dignity and they could never resist the fatal familiarities to which they once submitted.
society genesis indulgence
Society is no more indulgent than was the God of Genesis.
heart gloves doe
Woman is a most charming creature, who changes her heart as easily as she does her gloves.
men action providence
Virtually all men of action incline to Fatality just as most thinkers incline to Providence.