I had nearly five thousand volumes in my library at Rome; but after reading them over many times, I found out that with one hundred and fifty well-chosen books a man possesses, if not a complete summary of all human knowledge, at least all that a man need really know.
Now, to follow out this reasoning, what is the marvellous? – that which we do not understand. What is it that we really desire? – that which we cannot obtain.
Robin Buss is a writer and translator who contributes regularly to The Times Educational Supplement, The Times Literary Supplement and other papers.
Then the steps retreated, and the voices died away in the distance; the noise of the door, with its creaking hinges and bolts ceased, and a silence more sombre than that of solitude ensued, – the silence of death, which was all-pervasive, and struck its icy chill to the very soul of Dantes.
The fowl must have been sought for a long time on the perch, to which it had retired to die of old age. “The devil!” thought Porthos, “this is poor work. I respect old age, but I don’t much like it boiled or roasted.
Admire yourself and others will admire you’, a hundred times more useful in our days than the Greek one: ‘Know thyself’, which has now been replaced by the less demanding and more profitable art of knowing others.
Lucullus dines with Lucullus,’ that is quite sufficient.
Men’s minds are raised to the level of the women with whom they associate.
Adieu; I go far from men who thus so bitterly injure each other.
In the Rue de Seine he encountered Planchet, standing outside a bakery ecstatically worshipping a supremely appetizing brioche.
Planchet, two hours before, had asked his master for some dinner, and he had answered him with the proverb, “He who sleeps, dines.” And Planchet dined by sleeping.
He told himself that it was the hatred of men, not the vengeance of God, which had plunged him into the abyss where he now found himself.
The feet of Raoul were over the edge of the cliff, bathed in that void which is peopled by vertigo, and provokes to self-annihilation.
Toewijding. Een mooi woord voor streven dat op hoop is gebaseerd.
There is only one serious matter to be considered in life, and that is death.
Every day he spoke of the immensity of the treasure, explaining to Dantes all the good a man could do for his friends in our modern times with such a fortune. At those moments Dantes’ face would darken, for he thought of how much harm a man could do to his enemies in our modern times with such a fortune.
In politics, you know, as well as I do, there are no men, but ideas – no feelings, but interests.
Speak on, madame, speak on, Queen,” said Buckingham; “the sweetness of your voice covers the harshness of your words.
One easily believes what one desires.
A crestfallen capitalist is like a comet: he always warns of some great misfortune to come.