Henryk Sienkiewicz quotes - page 2

I felt within me a boundless wealth of this almost mystic love, and a belief that this earthly chrysalis would come forth in another world a butterfly, which, detached from all earthly conditions would soar from planet to planet, till it became united to the spirit of All-Life. For the first time the thought crossed my mind that Aniela and I may pass away as bodies, but our love will survive and even be our immortality. "Who knows," I thought, "whether this be not the only existing form of immortality?" - because I felt distinctly that there is something everlasting in my feeling, quite distinct from the ever changing phenomena of life. (Henryk Sienkiewicz)
Kromitzki is dead! The catastrophe has come upon us like a thunderbolt. God keep Aniela from any harm in her present state. View quote
Henryk Sienkiewicz
There is now resentment in my love. The thought is troubling my mind that she has a narrow heart, and that in this lies the secret of her unyieldingness. To-day, when I come to think it over more calmly, I go back to the conviction that she has some feeling for me, composed of gratitude, pity, and memories of the past; but it has no active power, cannot rise above prejudice, - even to the avowal of its existence. It does not respect itself, hides, is ashamed of itself, and in comparison with mine is as the mustard-seed to those Alps which surround us. From Aniela one may expect that she will restrict it rather than let it grow. It is of no use to hope or watch for anything from her; that conviction makes me very wretched. View quote
Henryk Sienkiewicz
Not Nero, but God, rules the world. View quote
Henryk Sienkiewicz
Aniela knows perfectly that I live for her only, exist through her; that all my thoughts belong to her, my actions have only her in view; that she is to me an issue of life and death; and in spite of all that she calmly decides to go away. Whether I should perish or beat my head against the wall, she never so much as considered. She will be more at ease when she ceases to see me writhing like a beetle stuck on a pin; she will be no longer afraid of my kissing her feet furtively, or startling that virtuous conscience. How can she hesitate when such excellent peace can be got, at so small a price as cutting somebody's throat! Thoughts like these spun across my brain by thousands. View quote
Henryk Sienkiewicz
Evidently the merit depends on the result of the work. View quote
Henryk Sienkiewicz
The profession of the writer has its thorns about which the reader does not dream. View quote
Henryk Sienkiewicz
Day is like day as two beads in a rosary, unless changes of weather form the only variety. View quote
Henryk Sienkiewicz
England is never in a hurry because she is eternal. View quote
Henryk Sienkiewicz
My position is such that there is no necessity for me to enter into competition with struggling humanity. As to expensive and ruinous pleasures, I am a sceptic who knows how much they are worth, or rather, knows that they are not worth anything. View quote
Henryk Sienkiewicz
But the French writers always had more originality and independence than others, and that regulator, which elsewhere was religion, long since ceased to exist for them. (Henryk Sienkiewicz)
I often think that Aniela does me a great wrong, not to say that she calls things by wrong names. She considers my love a mere earthly feeling, an infatuation of the senses. I do not deny that it is composed of various threads, but there are among them some as purely ideal as if spun of poetry. Very often my senses are lulled to sleep, and I love her as one loves only in early youth. Then the second self within me mocks, and says derisively: "I had no idea you could love like a schoolboy or a romanticist!" View quote
Henryk Sienkiewicz
She wanted to be near her husband, and what would become of me was not taken into account. View quote
Henryk Sienkiewicz
Whoso loves beauty is unable for that very reason to love deformity. View quote
Henryk Sienkiewicz
She never can grow ugly, changed, or old to me. I accept everything, agree to everything, and worship her as she is. View quote
Henryk Sienkiewicz
I might have been your happiness, and became your misfortune. View quote
Henryk Sienkiewicz
The howls of Cerberus, though resembling thy music, will be less offensive to me, for I have never been the friend of Cerberus, and I need not be ashamed of his howling. View quote
Henryk Sienkiewicz
My position is such that there is no necessity for me to enter into competition with struggling humanity. View quote
Henryk Sienkiewicz
The modern man is conscious of everything, and cannot find a remedy against anything. View quote
Henryk Sienkiewicz
I love her now beyond all words; she sees it, - she reads it in my eyes, and in my whole manner towards her. View quote
Henryk Sienkiewicz
Pliny declares, as I hear, that he does not believe in the gods, but he believes in dreams; and perhaps he is right. (Henryk Sienkiewicz)
It is not merely a question of sorrow after the death of a beloved being, but of the reproaches she will apply to herself, thinking that if she had loved him more he might have clung more to his life. View quote
Henryk Sienkiewicz
If it be a great misfortune to love another man's wife, be she ever so commonplace, it is an infinitely greater misfortune to love a virtuous woman. View quote
Henryk Sienkiewicz
Our world knew, before thou wert born, that when the last cup was drained, it was time to go, - time to rest, - and it knows yet how to do that with calmness. Plato declares that virtue is music, that the life of a sage is harmony. If that be true, I shall die as I have lived, - virtuously. View quote
Henryk Sienkiewicz
No God has promised me immortality; hence no surprise meets me. View quote
Henryk Sienkiewicz