Quotes by Guy de Maupassant

About Guy de Maupassant:

Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant was a French writer remembered as a master of the short story form and as a representative of the naturalist school of writers who depicted human lives and destinies and social forces in disillusioned and often pessimistic terms.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Why is it a shame for me to cause them to die and try to exterminate them, tell me? You did not talk that way when you used to come to my house in Jeanne-d'Arc street. Ah! it is a shame! You have not done as much, with your cross of honor! I deserve ...

Guy de Maupassant

Elle se sentait noyée dans le mépris de ces gredins honnêtes qui l'avaient sacrifiée d'abord, rejetée ensuite, comme une chose malpropre et inutile.

Guy de Maupassant

Elle se sentait en même temps indignée contre tous ses voisins, et humiliée d'avoir cedé, souillée par les baisers de ce Prussien entre les bras duquel on l'avait hypocritement jetée.

Guy de Maupassant

Ces six personnes formaient le fond de la voiture, le côté de la société rentée, sereine et forte, des honnêtes gens autorisés qui ont de la Religion et des Principes.

Guy de Maupassant

Les vases du fleuve ensevelissaient ces vengeances obscures, sauvages et légitimes, héroïsmes inconnus, attaques muettes, plus périlleuses que les batailles au grand jour et sans le retentissement de la gloire.

Guy de Maupassant

Un rideau de flocons blancs ininterrompu miroitait sans cesse en descendant vers la terre; il effaçait les formes, poudrait les choses d'une mousse de glace; et l'on n'entendait plus, dans le grand silence de la ville calme et ensevelie sous l'hiver...

Guy de Maupassant

By nature independent, gay, even exuberant, seductively responsive and given to those spontaneous sallies that sparkle in the conversation of certain daughters of Paris who seem to have inhaled since childhood the pungent breath of the boulevards lad...

Guy de Maupassant

Every authentically loved being is a kind of god.

Guy de Maupassant

Language dazzles and deceives because it is masked by faces, because we see it emerging from the lips, because lips please and eyes beguile. But words on paper, black on white, reveal the naked soul.

Guy de Maupassant

I had kissed her at odd times, in out of the way corners, in the manner of a mountain guide, nothing more.

Guy de Maupassant

What do you want?" he then asked her. And with clenched teeth, and trembling with anger, she replied: "I want--I want you to marry me, as you promised." But he only laughed and replied: "Oh! if a man were to marry all the girls with whom he has made ...

Guy de Maupassant

I said, 'If other beings besides us exist on Earth, why didn't we meet them a long time ago?

Guy de Maupassant

A sick thought can devour the body's flesh more than fever or consumption.

Guy de Maupassant

Solitude is indeed dangerous for a working intelligence. We need to have around us people who think and speak. When we are alone for a long time we people the void with phantoms

Guy de Maupassant

How fathomless the mystery of the Unseen is! We cannot plumb its depths with our feeble senses - with eyes which cannot see the infinitely small or the infinitely great, nor anything too close or too distant, such as the beings who live on a star or ...

Guy de Maupassant

Why not other elements besides fire, air, earth and water? There are four of them, just four, those foster parents of beings! What a pity! Why aren't there forty elements instead, or four hundred, or four thousand? How paltry everything is, how miser...

Guy de Maupassant

You have the army of mediocrities followed by the multitude of fools. As the mediocrities and the fools always form the immense majority, it is impossible for them to elect an intelligent government.

Guy de Maupassant

She stayed there, in her ball dress, without strength to go to bed, overwhelmed, on a chair, without a fire, without a thought.

Guy de Maupassant

There are some delightful places in this world which have a sensual charm for the eyes. One loves them with a physical love. We people who are attracted by the countryside cherish fond memories of certain springs, certain woods, certain ponds, certai...

Guy de Maupassant

They were so absorbed in their plotting that they did not hear Boule de Suif return. But the Comte's whispered 'shh!' made them all look up. There she was. A sudden silence fell, and at first a feeling of embarrassment prevented them from speaking to...

Guy de Maupassant

Author Bio

  • NameGuy de Maupassant
  • DescriptionFrench writer
  • AliasesHenri René Albert Guy de Maupassant
  • BornAugust 5, 1850
  • DiedJuly 6, 1893
  • CountryFrance
  • ProfessionShort Story Writer; Playwright; Journalist; Novelist