After another moment’s silence she mumbled that I was peculiar,
that that was probably why she loved me but that one day
I might disgust her for the very same reason.
The Stranger // Albert Camus
After another moment’s silence she mumbled that I was peculiar,
that that was probably why she loved me but that one day
I might disgust her for the very same reason.
The Stranger // Albert Camus
At bottom, you see, you are the only thing that counts for me,
for you are everything – beauty, love, poetry … in a word, life.
// Guillaume Apollinaire, from a letter to Madeleine Pagès
Deep in her soul, however, she was waiting for something to happen. Like a sailor in distress, she would gaze out over the solitude of her life with desperate eyes, seeking some white sail in the mists of the far-off horizon. She did not know what this chance event would be, what wind would drive it to her, what shore it would carry her to, whether it was a longboat or a three-decked vessel, loaded with anguish or filled with happiness up to the portholes.
But each morning, when she awoke, she hoped it would arrive that day, and she would listen to every sound, spring to her feet, feel surprised that it had not come; then at sunset, always more sorrowful, she would wish the next day were already there.
Madame Bovary // Gustave Flaubert
When someone blushes, doesn’t that mean ‘yes’?”
The Little Prince // Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
In those days, I didn’t understand anything.
I should have judged her according to her actions, not her words.
She perfumed my planet and lit up my life.
I should never have run away!
I ought to have realized the tenderness underlying her silly pretensions.
Flowers are so contradictory!
But I was too young to know how to love her.
The Little Prince // Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
I have led a toothless life…
I have never bitten into anything.
I was waiting.
I was reserving myself for later on-
and I have just noticed that my teeth have gone.
L’Age de Raison // Jean-Paul Sartre
Love does not consist in gazing at each other,
but in looking outward together in the same direction.
// Antoine de Saint-Exupery
There are women who inspire you with the desire to conquer them and to take your pleasure of them; but this one fills you only with the desire to die slowly beneath her gaze.
// Charles Baudelaire
The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched, they are felt with the heart.
The Little Prince // Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Now and then it’s good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy.
// Guillaume Apollinaire