Bel Ami Quotes

“In the kingdom of the blind the one-eyed man is king.”
― Guy de Maupassant, Bel-Ami

“Now listen carefully: Marriage, to me, is not a chain but an association. I must be free, entirely unfettered, in all my actions--my coming and my going; I can tolerate neither control, jealousy, nor criticism as to my conduct. I pledge my word, however, never to compromise the name of the man I marry, nor to render him ridiculous in the eyes of the world. But that man must promise to look upon me as an equal, an ally, and not as an inferior, or as an obedient, submissive wife. My ideas, I know, are not like those of other people, but I shall never change them.”
― Guy de Maupassant

“Une vie! Quelques jours et puis plus rien! On naît, on grandit, on est heureux, on attend, puis on meurt.”
― Guy de Maupassant

“It was one of those feminine faces whose every line has its own particular charm, and seems to possess a meaning, whose every movement seems to reveal or to conceal something.”
― Guy de Maupassant, Bel-Ami

“They had moved closer to one another to watch the dying moments of the day, this beautiful bright May day.”
― Guy de Maupassant, Bel-Ami

“This notary was a little man, completely round, round in every part. His head looked like a ball nailed onto another ball, supported by two legs that were so tiny and so short that they also closely resembled balls.”
― Guy de Maupassant, Bel-Ami

“He did not know how to make her understand that he would be happy, most happy, to become her husband in his turn. He certainly could not tell her that, now, at this moment, in this place, in the presence of this corpse; nevertheless he could, he believed, find one of those ambiguous, acceptable, complicated statements whose words have hidden significance, and which can, by their calculated reservations, express everything you intend.”
― Guy de Maupassant, Bel-Ami