Henryk Sienkiewicz > Quotes

“But I think happiness springs from another source, a far deeper one that doesn't depend on will because it comes from love.”
― Henryk Sienkiewicz, Quo Vadis

“Nevertheless, in this sea of human wretchedness and malice there bloomed at times compassion, as a pale flower blooms in a putrid marsh.”
― Henryk Sienkiewicz, In Desert and Wilderness

“It is not Atlas who carries the world on his shoulders, but woman; and sometimes she plays with it as with a ball.”
― Henryk Sienkjewicz

“Why does crime, even when as powerful as Cæsar, and assured of being beyond punishment, strive always for the appearances of truth, justice, and virtue? Why does it take the trouble?”
― Henryk Sienkiewicz, Quo Vadis: a narrative of the time of Nero

“...he began to fear whether in the presence of far greater events, all his acts would not fade into insignificance, just as a drop of rain disappears into the sea.”
― Henryk Sienkiewicz, In Desert and Wilderness

“I know, 0 Caesar, that thou art awaiting my arrival with impatience, that thy true heart of a friend is yearning day and night for me. I know that thou art ready to cover me with gifts, make me prefect of the pretorian guards, and command Tigellinus to be that which the gods made him, a mule-driver in those lands which thou didst inherit after poisoning Domitius. Pardon me, however, for I swear to thee by Hades, and by the shades of thy mother, thy wife, thy brother, and Seneca, that I cannot go to thee. Life is a great treasure. I have taken the most precious jewels from that treasure, but in life there are many things which I cannot endure any longer. Do not suppose, I pray, that I am offended because thou didst kill thy mother, thy wife, and thy brother; that thou didst burn Eome and send to Erebus all the honest men in thy dominions. No, grandson of Chronos. Death is the inheritance of man; from thee other deeds could not have been expected. But to destroy one's ear for whole years with thy poetry, to see thy belly of a Domitius on slim legs whirled about in a Pyrrhic dance; to hear thy music, thy declamation, thy doggerel verses, wretched poet of the suburbs, — is a thing surpassing my power, and it has roused in me the wish to die. Eome stuffs its ears when it hears thee; the world reviles thee. I can blush for thee no longer, and I have no wish to do so. 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. Farewell, but make no music; commit murder, but write no verses; poison people, but dance not; be an incendiary, but play not on a cithara. This is the wish and the last friendly counsel sent thee by the — Arbiter Elegantiae.”
― Henryk Sienkiewicz, Quo Vadis

“Așa-i de când lumea, că cine se introspectează prea mult, acela nu mai e de acord nici cu sine însuși, în cele din urmă, iar cine nu-i de acord cu sine însuși, acela nu-i capabil să ia o hotărâre.”
― Henryk Sienkiewicz, Fără ideal

“He always smiles, even when contemplating nothing good.”
― Henryk Sienkiewicz, In Desert and Wilderness

“If we repay evil with good, then how do we repay the good?”
― Henryk Sienkiewicz, Quo Vadis

“England is never in a hurry because she is eternal.”
― Henryk Sienkiewicz, In Desert and Wilderness

“Tell me,' asked Stas, 'what is a wicked deed?' 'If anyone takes away Kali's cow,' he answered after a brief reflection, 'that then is a wicked deed.' 'Excellent!' exclaimed Stas, 'and what is a good one?' This time the answer came without any reflection: 'If Kali takes away the cow of somebody else, that is a good deed.' Stas was too young to perceive that similar views of evil and good deeds were enunciated in Europe not only by politicians but by whole nations.”
― Henryk Sienkiewicz, In Desert and Wilderness

“Am auzit sau am citit că filoanele de aur au uneori la suprafață un înveliș de cuarț, din care e greu să extragi metalul. Presupun că și inima ta are un asemenea înveliș; înăuntru se află metalul prețios, dar afurisita asta de coajă nu s-a topit de tot...”
― Henryk Sienkiewicz, Fără ideal

“ In genere, femeia nu-si insala barbatul si nu-l tradeaza, daca el singur nu-i acela care sa-i strice sau sa-i calce inima singur in picioare, daca nu o dezgusta ori n-o respinge prin micimea lui, prin egoismul lui, prin ingustimea vederilor. Deci, trebuie sa iubesti. Ca ea sa nu se simta numai femela ta, ci faptura cea mai scumpa pentru tine, copilul tau, prietenul tau; poart-o la san, ca sa-i fie cald si atunci poti fi sigur de ea, atunci, cu fiecare an care trece, se va lipi tot mai mult de tine, pana cand o sa va lipiti de tot, ca gemenii siamezi. Daca nu-i dai toate astea, o strici, o dezgusti prin nimicnicia ta si se indeparteaza. Te va parasi de indata ce maini mai nobile se vor intinde spre ea, caci trebuie s-o faca, are nevoie de caldura si de consideratie ca de aerul pe care-l respira.”
― Henryk Sienkiewicz, Without Dogma: A Novel of Modern Poland

“In the presence of the storm, thunderbolts, hurricane, rain, darkness, and the lions, which might be concealed but a few paces away, he felt disarmed and helpless.”
― Henryk Sienkiewicz, In Desert and Wilderness

“He who knew how to live should know how to die.”
― Henryk Sienkiewicz, Quo Vadis: A Narrative of the Time of Nero – Henryk Sienkiewicz's Historical Epic

“It appears to me that many cultured people are attacked by the same disease. Criticism of ourselves and everything else is corroding our active power; we have no stable basis, no point of issue, no faith in life.”
― Henryk Sienkiewicz, Without Dogma

“Sometimes I have thought that human misery goes far beyond human imagination,—imagination has its limits, and misery, like the vast seas, appears to be without end.”
― Henryk Sienkiewicz, Without Dogma

“It has been said that Poland is dead, exhausted, enslaved, but here is the proof of her life and triumph.”
― Henryk Sienkiewicz

“It seemed that out of every tear of a martyr new confessors were born, and that every groan on the arena found an echo in thousands of breasts. Caesar was swimming in blood, Rome and the whole pagan world was mad.

But those who had had enough of transgression and madness, those who were trampled upon, those whose lives were misery and oppression, all the weighed down, all the sad, all the unfortunate, came to hear the wonderful tidings of God, who out of love for men had given Himself to be crucified and redeem their sins.

When they found a God whom they could love, they had found that which the society of the time could not give any one, -- happiness and love.”
― Henryk Sienkiewicz, Quo Vadis

“-Моето щастие мина, и радостта ми отмина, но аз не съм зла.”
― Henryk Sienkiewicz, Quo Vadis

“Prophet,' he said, 'Your doctrines I do not know; therefore if I accepted them, I would do it out of fear like a coward and a base man. Are you anxious that your faith be professed by cowards and base people?”
― Henryk Sienkiewicz, In Desert and Wilderness

“She wasted and grew so thin that she no longer was a little girl, but the shadow of a little girl. The flame of her life flickered so faintly that it appeared sufficient to blow at it to extinguish it. Stas understood that death did not have to wait for a third attack to take her and he expected it any day or any hour.”
― Henryk Sienkiewicz, In Desert and Wilderness

“A beautiful woman is worth her weight always in gold; but if she loves in addition, she has simply no price.”
― Henryk Sienkiewicz, Quo Vadis: A Narrative of the Time of Nero – Henryk Sienkiewicz's Historical Epic

“There, about a dozen times during the day, the wind drives over the sky the swollen clouds, which water the earth copiously, after which the sun shines brightly, as if freshly bathed, and floods with a golden luster the rocks, the river, the trees, and the entire jungle.”
― Henryk Sienkiewicz, In Desert and Wilderness

“As to women, I agree that each has three or four souls, but none of them a reasoning one.”
― Henryk Sienkjewicz

“What dreadful misfortune awaited them among the savage hordes intoxicated with blood?”
― Henryk Sienkiewicz, In Desert and Wilderness

“Amid the stillness of the night, in the depths of the ravine, from the direction in which the corpses lay suddenly resounded a kind of inhuman, frightful laughter in which quivered despair, and joy, and cruelty, and suffering, and pain, and sobbing, and derision; the heart-rending and spasmodic laughter of the insane or condemned.”
― Henryk Sienkiewicz, In Desert and Wilderness

“Poland! Poland! The very name carries with it sighings and groanings, nation-murder, brilliance, beauty, patriotism, splendors, self-sacrifice through generations of gallant men and exquisite women; indomitable endurance of bands of noble people carrying through world-wide exile the sacred fire of wrath against the oppressor, and uttering in every clime a cry of appeal to Humanity to rescue Poland.”
― Henryk Sienkiewicz, The Knights of the Cross

“Youth is the one worthwhile treasure in this world, no matter how miserable the rest of life might be.”
― Henryk Sienkiewicz, Quo Vadis

“If you consider yourself a superior type, or even if you be such, let me tell you that the sum total of such superiority, is socially, a minus quantity." I”
― Henryk Sienkiewicz, Without Dogma