Barbey D'Aurevilly Quotes
The crimes of extreme civilization are probably worse than those of extreme barbarism, because of their refinement, the corruption they presuppose, and their superior degree of intellectuality.
They had...finished their lives before their death - which is not always the end of life and often comes long before the end.
The artist's morality lies in the force and truth of his description.
For in Paris, whenever God puts a pretty woman there (the streets), the Devil, in reply, immediately puts a fool to keep her.
Happy men are grave. They carry their happiness cautiously, as they would a glass filled to the brim which the slightest movement could cause to spill over, or break.
The crimes of extreme civilization are certainly more atrocious than those of extreme barbarism.
Passions are less mischievous than boredom, for passions tend to diminish and boredom increase.
Yet, whether to the glory or to the shame of human nature, in what we call pleasure (with an excess of scorn, perhaps) there are abysses as deep as those of love.
We priests are the surgeons of souls, and it is our duty to deliver them of shameful secrets they would fain conceal, with hands careful to neither wound no pollute.
I did not want to be taken for a fool-the typical French reason for performing the worst of deeds without remorse.
Dandies, who – as you know - scorn all emotions as being beneath them, and do not believe, like that simpleton Goethe, that astonishment can ever be a proper feeling for the human mind.
Night, which in Autumn seems to fall from the sky so suddenly, chilled us...
For with dandies, a joke is the only way of making yourself respected.
Passions are less mischievous than boredom for passions tend to diminish and boredom increase.
I did not want to be taken for a fool – the typical French reason for performing the worst of deeds without remorse.
He was terrified by the sublime horror of it, for intensity of feeling, carried to this degree, is sublime. ("A Woman's Vengeance")
Men are all the same. Novelty amongst themselves displeases and upsets them – but if the novelty is wearing a skirt, they go crazy f
Beauty is single. Only ugliness is multiple, and even then its multiplicity is soon exhausted.
The Devil teaches women what they are – or they would teach it to the Devil if he did not know.
In Paris, where raillery is so quick to throw emotion out the window, silence, in a roomful of clever people after a story, is the most flattering of all marks of success
They had...finished their lives before their death – which is not always the end of life and often comes long before the end.