Quotes from Bel-Ami

“We breathe, sleep, drink, eat, work and then die! The end of life is death. What do you long for? Love? A few kisses and you will be powerless. Money? What for? To gratify your desires. Glory? What coems after it all? Death! Death alone is certain.”
― Guy de Maupassant, quote from Bel-Ami

“Les paroles d'amour, qui sont toujours les mêmes, prennent le goût des lèvres dont elles sortent.”
― Guy de Maupassant, quote from Bel-Ami

“In the kingdom of the blind the one-eyed man is king.”
― Guy de Maupassant, quote from Bel-Ami

“Yes, this is the only good thing in life: love! To hold a woman you love in your arms! That is the ultimate in human happiness.”
― Guy de Maupassant, quote from Bel-Ami

“It's not difficult to appear bright, don't worry. The main thing is never to show obvious ignorance of anything. You prevaricate, avoid the difficulty, steer clear of the problem and then catch other people out by using a dictionary. All men are stupid oafs and ignorant nincompoops.”
― Guy de Maupassant, quote from Bel-Ami

“It was one of those bitter mornings when the whole of nature is shiny, brittle, and hard, like crystal. The trees, decked out in frost, seem to have sweated ice; the earth resounds beneath one's feet; the tiniest sounds carry a long way in the dry air; the blue sky is bright as a mirror, and the sun moves through space in icy brilliance, casting on the frozen world rays which bestow no warmth upon anything.”
― Guy de Maupassant, quote from Bel-Ami

“I hope you realize that you really hit it off with the ladies? You must cultivate that. It could take you far.”
― Guy de Maupassant, quote from Bel-Ami

“Envy, bitter envy, was permeating his soul drop by drop, like a poison that tainted all his pleasures and made his life hateful.”
― Guy de Maupassant, quote from Bel-Ami

“Madeleine in her turn stared at him steadily, straight into his eyes, in a profound, strange way, as if seeking to read something there, as if seeking to discover there that hidden part of a human being which can never be fathomed but may perhaps be glimpsed for a fleeting instant, in those moments of unguardedness or surrender or inattention, that are like doors left ajar onto the mysterious depths of the spirit... they stood for a few seconds, each gazing into the other's eyes, each striving to reach the impenetrable secret of the other's heart, to probe each other's thoughts to the quick. They tried, in a mute and passionate questioning, to see the other's conscience in its essential truth: the intimate struggles of two beings who, living side by side, never really know one another, who suspect and sniff around and spy on one another, but cannot plumb the miry depths of one another's soul.”
― Guy de Maupassant, quote from Bel-Ami

“It is not difficult to pass for being learned. The secret is not to betray your ignorance.”
― Guy de Maupassant, quote from Bel-Ami

“Get married, my friend, you don't know what it means to live alone, at my age. Nowadays feeling alone fills me with appalling anguish; being alone at home, by the fire, in the evening. It seems to me then that I'm alone on the earth, dreadfully alone, but surrounded by indeterminate dangers, by unknown, terrible things; and the wall, which divides me from my neighbour, whom I do not know, separates me from him by as great a distance as that which separates me from the stars I see through my window. A kind of fever comes over me, a fever of pain and fear, and the silence of the walls terrifies me. It is so profound, so sad, the silence of the room in which you live alone. It isn't just a silence of the body, but a silence of the soul, and, when a piece of furniture creaks, a shiver runs through your whole body, for in that dismal place you expect to hear no sound.”
― Guy de Maupassant, quote from Bel-Ami

“They had moved closer to one another to watch the dying moments of the day, this beautiful bright May day.”
― Guy de Maupassant, quote from Bel-Ami

“Dits par l'autre tout à l'heure ils l'irritaient et l'écoeuraient. Car les paroles d'amour, qui sont toujours les mêmes, prennent les goût des lèvres dont elles sortent.”
― Guy de Maupassant, quote from Bel-Ami

“He had a fund of small talk, a pleasant voice, a caressing glance and his moustache was irresistible. Crisp and curly, it curved charmingly over his lip, fair with auburn tints, slightly paler where it bristled at the ends.”
― Guy de Maupassant, quote from Bel-Ami

“For the first time, Duroy thought of all that was hidden in her past and began to speculate. Obviously she'd already had lovers, but what sort were they and what kind of society did they come from? A vague jealousy, a sort of hostility against her, stirred in him, an hostility directed against everything that he did not know about her, all that part of her feelings and life which did not belong to him. He looked at her, irritated by the secrets hidden in that pretty, silent little head, which perhaps at that very moment was thinking with regret of another man, of other men. How he would have liked to peer into her memories, explore them and learn all there was to know about them!”
― Guy de Maupassant, quote from Bel-Ami

“Un barbat indragostit e sters de pe lista celor vii. Devine idiot, nu numai idiot, dar primejdios. Intrerup, cu barbatii indragostiti de mine sau care, cel putin, pretind ca sunt, orice relatie apropiata, mai intai pentru ca ma plictisesc, apoi, pentru ca devin suspecti, ca un caine turbat care poate avea o criza. Ii trec, asadar, in carantina morala, pana cand se vindeca. Sa nu uiti asta. Stiu foarte bine ca, la tine, dragostea e doar un soi de pofta, in timp ce la mine ar fi, dimpotriva, un soi de comuniune a sufletelor, care nu face parte din religia barbatilor. Tu ai intelege litera, iar eu spiritul...”
― Guy de Maupassant, quote from Bel-Ami

“It was one of those feminine faces whose every line has its own particular charm, and seems to possess a meaning, whose every movement seems to reveal or to conceal something.”
― Guy de Maupassant, quote from Bel-Ami

“Then, as the priest was emerging somewhat uneasily from his lair, he went straight up to him, looked deep into his eyes, and growled into his face: 'If you weren't wearing skirts, what a punch I'd give you right on your ugly snout, wouldn't I just!”
― Guy de Maupassant, quote from Bel-Ami

“<...> out of love of symmetry, just as people put two vases above a fireplace.”
― Guy de Maupassant, quote from Bel-Ami

“This notary was a little man, completely round, round in every part. His head looked like a ball nailed onto another ball, supported by two legs that were so tiny and so short that they also closely resembled balls.”
― Guy de Maupassant, quote from Bel-Ami

“Mon cher ami, pour moi un homme amoureux est rayé du nombre des vivants. Il devient idiot, pas seulement idiot, mais dangereux. Je cesse, avec les gens qui m'aiment d'amour, ou qui le prétendent, toute relation intime, parce qu'ils m'ennuient d'abord, et puis parce qu'ils me sont suspects comme un chien enragé qui peut avoir une crise. Je les mets donc en quarantaine morale jusqu'à ce que leur maladie soit passée. Ne l'oubliez point. Je sais bien que chez vous l'amour n'est autre chose qu'une espèce d'appétit, tandis que chez moi ce serait, au contraire, une espèce de... de... de communion des âmes qui n'entre pas dans la religion des hommes. Vous en comprenez la lettre, et moi l'esprit.”
― Guy de Maupassant, quote from Bel-Ami

“Pourquoi souffrons-nous ainsi ? demande le vieux poète Norbert de Varenne à Georges Duroy. C’est que nous étions nés sans doute pour vivre d’avantage selon la matière et moins selon l’esprit ; mais, à force de penser, une disproportion s’est faite entre l’état de notre intelligence agrandie et les conditions immuables de notre vie.”
― Guy de Maupassant, quote from Bel-Ami

“Движеше се
енергично между тълпата, помагайки си с раменете, блъскайки срещаните, като си
разчистваше по такъв начин път. Небрежно наместил износената си висока шапка и,
тропайки с токове по улицата, вървеше с вид на човек, който презира всичко — минувачите,
къщите, целия град. По този начин той демонстрираше високомерието на истински военен,
попаднал между цивилни.”
― Guy de Maupassant, quote from Bel-Ami

“Viata este un munte. Atata timp cat urci, te uiti spre varf si esti fericit, dar cand ajungi pe creasta, zaresti dintr-odata coborasul si sfarsitul care este moartea. E foarte departe cand urci, dar e foarte aproape cand cobori.”
― Guy de Maupassant, quote from Bel-Ami

“Mais, comme il éprouvait une peine infinie à découvrir des idées, il prit la spécialité des déclamations sur la décadence des moeurs sur l'abaissement des caractères, l'affaissement du patriotisme et l'anémie de l'honneur français. (Il avait trouvé le mot "anémie" dont il était fier.)”
― Guy de Maupassant, quote from Bel-Ami

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About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.