authors-from-france

"Aux États-Unis la nature, comme la société, n'est pas toujours belle, mais elle est toujours grande."

"In love, if inconstancy gives some pleasure, constancy alone gives happiness."

"To select well among old things is almost equal to inventing new ones."

"I thought I had dismissed my past, but one morning it caught up with me."

"Prisons, like churches, always escape the bombings."

"I shall never be so embittered as to discourage the faith of those who are twenty years of age. I believe, though, I have earned the right to urge prudence, not as regards the act of commitment itself, but in the choice that leads to it."

"There was also anti-Semitism, a tricky problem. I did not feel then, and have never felt, any racial hatred. To me the Jews were a symbol; to oppose them was to fight against international capitalism. In the closed world in which I moved they represented the forces of evil."

"Pain was in the order of things and restored the much-scoffed-at-discipline. And it was just such a discipline that I expected from the Waffen SS, founded not on caste or compulsion but, to the contrary, on a kind of internal justice, accepted by each member as a matter of course because it was based on a communal ideal in which all were equal, even the higher ranks in the hierarchy."

"Now I can smile at this fervor. But I do not repudiate it. It is, above all it was, a part of my truth."

"It is precisely when the house is on fire, as I said to myself, and there is a good excuse to flee, that one should defend it all the more energetically. I suppose I acted less because of an ideology than to be true to myself."

"In a broader way, I discovered those those great, simple truths that had escaped me in the kind of magic circle I had shut myself into: that war is hideous, fanatical beliefs murderous, and death the supreme evil."

"I decided to take a risk, not out of pride, but simply because it was only by a certain frankness that I could keep my self-respect."

"Dum Magistri super pectus Fontem haurit intellectûs Et doctrinæ flumina, Fiunt, ipso situ loci, Verbo fides, auris voci, Mens Deo contermina. Unde mentis per excessus, Carnis, sensûs super gressus Errorumque nubila, Contra veri solis lumen Visum cordis et acumen Figit velut aquila."

"Verbi vere substantivi, Caro cum sit in declivi Temporis angustiâ, In æternis verbum annis Permanere, nos Johannis Docet theologia."

"[The inhabitants of Congo] steale willingly from strangers, but they use no theft among themselves. The women are all given to make love, especially with strangers, not caring for their reputations, so as they may satisfie their lustfull desires."

"In the province of Bamba, there is a mountaine, where they find many mynes of silver, and other mettalls. They have also in this countrie many Elephants, by reason of the many forests, and rivers. These Elephants are exceeding great, for that they grow unto the middest of their age, and they live commonly unto the age of one hundred and fiftie yeares. Those which we have seene in Portugall, and elswhere in Europe, were lesse, for that they were brought away too young. The greatnesse of these beasts may be conceived by their teeth, which have beene gathered up, whereof some have beene two hundred weight. In the language of Congo, the Elephants tooth is called Mene Manzao. The young Elephants are called Moana Manzo. Their eares are not lesse than the greatest Turkish targets; the greatest are six foot long, fanshioned like an egge, and they are narrow towards the shoulder. With the motion of their eares and tayle, they drive away flies, and they kill them when they rest upon them, drawing together their skin. The haire of their tayle is verie thicke, and like to little blacke shining reeds, and those of the younger are the fairest and strongest, and of greater price. Without doubt the Auncients did not know the nature of the Elephant, whenas they said they could not bend their hammes, and therefore they did leane against some tree to sleepe, and by this meanes were easie to be taken: for the Portugals and Flemings have seene the contrarie, for they get up into trees drawing up their haunches to gather leaves or boughes, or stoope easily downe when they drinke in any place where the water is low, the which they could not doe if they had no joynts."

"They do also find other beasts, whereof some are as big as an oxe, others are lesse, which they call Empalanges: then they have wild bugles or oxen, woolves which smell very farre off, and which doe exceedingly love a certaine oyle which they draw out of palme trees. Moreover, they have foxes, stags, goats, conies, and hares, in great aboundance, for that they pursue them not to death when they hunt, as they doe in Europe. They have great numbers of Civit Cats, the which they take and make tame, to the end they may get the good scent which comes from this beast, the which is wonderfull pleasing unto them."

"The inhabitants of Paros were sometimes accused of disloyaltie, and to be no men of their words, because Miltiades, Generall of the Athenians armie, having subdued them, and they, having faithfully promised to be their subjects, they observed not their promise; and therefore it was said as in a common proverbe: To doe as they of Paros did; which was: to falsifie their faith."

"[The Corsicanes] are so full of revenge, as the Italians have a common proverbe which saith, That they must never trust a Corsicane, neither alive nor dead, for that as soone as any one is slaine, presently all his kinsmen meet to kill him, if it be possible, that slew him: and notwithstanding that they make some accord, yet there is no great trust in it, for that he may be surprised when he dreames least of it; so as the best course is to looke well to himselfe, and not to make any strict league of amitie with reconciled enemies."

"There are divers sorts of serpents and vipers, whereof some are five and twentie foot long and five broad, having the bellie very large, and the throat so wide, as they will devoure a stag, or any other beast of the like bignesse. They live as well upon the land as in the water. When they are full they sleepe willingly, and then the inhabitants kill them, and feed upon their flesh, which they hold to be better than that of any foule. Finally, there are vipers whose poison is so strong, as when they have bitten any one, he dies within five and twentie houres. There are also to be seene certaine beasts as big as a ram, having wings like a dragon, they have a taile, a long beake, and many rankes of teeth. they live of raw flesh, and have but two legs: their skinne is red mixt with greene and blew."

"The same province breeds another beast called Zebre by the inhabitants, the which is like unto a mule, but it ingenders. Finally, the disposition of the haire is very strange; for from the ridge of the backe to the bellie, there are lines or strikes of three colours, white, blacke, and yellow, all being ordered by a just proportion, and every strike being of the breadth of three fingers. These beasts multiplie greatly, for that they have young every yeare. They are wild, and exceeding swift; so as the Portugals among their proverbs, have that of the swiftnesse of the Zebre. This beast being made tame, might serve for a horse in the war, bearing and drawing men and burdens, to the end we may see how God hath provided for things necessarie. But for that this countrie wants horses, and the inhabitants have not the art to make the Zabre tame, nor know how to use oxen, notwithstanding they have many in these countries: the men do the office of beasts; for being set at the corners of streets or highwaies, they carrie litters or chaires: so as they that are to make a journey speedily, change the men often that carrie them, and by this meanes they soone dispatch the way they are to go."

"The king of Spaine receives from this Estate [Milan] yearely eight hundred thousand duc∣kats of ordinarie, besides the free gifts and other extraordinarie matters: And to shew, that this king can tell how to draw as much as is possible from this Estate, or that his officers make it for him, the proverbe of Italie saith, That the officer of Sicile doth gnaw, He of Naples doth eate, but He of Milan doth devour."

"The Hippopotame, or horse of the river, is tawnie, hath little haire, and leapes to land to feed, and in the day time returnes to the water. The Afrikans make some of them tame, and they are exceeding swift, but they must not passe over deepe rivers, for they will presently dive. There doe also ingender in those rivers certaine water oxen, which live for some dayes upon the land. The aboundance of water, together with the heat, by reason of the neerenesse of the Sun, makes the countrie exceeding fertile, and to abound in plants, fruit, hearbes, and graine, and it would yeeld much more, if the industrie of the inhabitants did helpe nature."

"In the province of Pemba, in which the towne of Congo stands, the inhabitants cut the branches of certaine trees called Ogegues, and make hedges, alleys, and arbours, to keepe them from the Sunne. They carrie Tamarinde in their mouthes, to prevent thirst. The houses of the inhabitants of Congo, are low, and verie narrow; not for want of materialls (as we have shewed discoursing of their quarries of stone and marble, besides the which, there is store of lyme and tymber) but by reason of the little industrie of the inha∣bitants, who know not how to build, nor have any carpenters, nor masons, for the erecting of houses. They of Congo use cockles instead of gold and coyne, and make their traffique therewith."

"The Suevians are much given to incontinencie, and the women are as tractable as men can desire, and both the one and the other begin this lewd life soone, and leave it late: and therefore there is a common proverbe, That the countrie of Suaube alone is able to furnish all Germanie with strumpets, Franconia with rogues and beggers, [Bohemia] with heretickes, Bavaria with theeves, Westphalia with perjurers and false witnesses, and the Marquisat of the Rhin with gluttons."

"In the time of Kaykozrrao, there were in Persia two famous Philosophers, the one called Horez, the other Lokmon: of this last there are some workers found among the Persians, which shew that he was of a great spirit: among others they haue a booke of comparisons and examples very like to those of Aesope; there is also great likelyhood that they spake of him, whenas reporting his life they say that being a great Philosopher, he had beene a slave, very faithfull, and gratious, and that he dyed condemned: one thing makes it doubtfull, for that they assure he was a Jew. They have a proverbe among them, which saith, It is not needfull to teach Lokmon, to shew the deepe knowledge of this man."

"Opium awakens the appetite at first, during that initial phase it never surpasses.Afterwards... nothing matters anymore — not love, not hunger, not anguish, not death."

"I love difficulty. Things easily won have less value."

"One can never say enough how moving a first kiss is."

"I love hearing people talk about France. You can't imagine how much I would like to know it. Sometimes at night, when I was little, I would dream that I was finally there. I would wake up and cry under my mosquito net when I realized it was only a dream."

"Women like balls and assemblies, as a hunter likes a place where game abounds."

"To remain virtuous, a man has only to combat his own desires: a woman must resist her own inclinations, and the continual attack of man."

"A jest that makes a virtuous woman only smile, often frightens away a prude; but, when real danger forces the former to flee, the latter does not hesitate to advance."

"One may be better than his reputation or his conduct, but never better than his principles."

"In marriage, woman is a serf. In public instruction, she is sacrificed. In labor, she is made inferior. Civilly, she is a minor. Politically, she has no existence. She is the equal of man only when punishment and the payment of taxes are in question. I claim the rights of woman, because it is time to make the nineteenth century ashamed of its culpable denial of justice to half the human species; Because the state of inferiority in which we are held corrupts morals, dissolves society, deteriorates and enfeebles the race; Because the progress of enlightenment, in which woman participates, has transformed her in social power, and because this new power produces evil in default of the good which it is not permitted to do; Because the time for according reforms has come, since women are protesting against the order which oppresses them; some by disdain of laws and prejudices; others by taking possession of contested positions, and by organizing themselves into societies to claim their share of human rights, as is done in America; Lastly, because it seems to me useful to reply, no longer with sentimentality, but with vigor, to those men who, terrified by the emancipating movement, call to their aid false science to prove that woman is outside the pale of right; and carry indecorum and the opposite of courage, even to insult, even to the most revolting outrages."

"Three things white: skin, teeth and hands. Three black: eyes, brows and lids. Three red: lips, cheeks and nails. Three long: body, hair and hands. Three short: teeth, ears and feet. Three wide: chest or bosom, forehead and space betwixt the eyes. Three narrow: mouth (upper and lower), girth or waist, and ankle. Three big and thick: arm, thigh and calf. Three long and fine: fingers, hair and lips. Three small and delicate: breasts, nose and head."

"A fair body, if it have not a fair mind to match, is more like a mere image of itself or idol than a true human body."

"Le silence du peuple est la leçon des rois."

"Le silence du peuple est la leçon des rois."

"Nous sommes assemblés par la volonté nationale, nous n’en sortirons que par la force."

"[Insert French]"

"The Oriental Renaissance—though not Indic studies themselves—had only an ephemeral career in the same England to which it owed its origin. Later the debt of several writers, especially the Lake Poets, to the Hindu revelation became clear, and the shadow of its impact on London was evident in Chateaubriand when he returned from exile. But the fire in England was soon damped. Great Britain could not, or would not, be the hearth for such a renaissance. Thereafter, even in Indie Studies, the Victorians procured their best workers only by appealing to the German universities."

"Journalist: What is the difference between a "great watchmaker" god and the God of Jesus Christ? The "great watchmaker" refers to the poetry of Voltaire: it is based on the idea that the world is a clock, that is, a mechanical construction. The model is the vision of Newton and the founders of modern science, such as Descartes. It is known that Pascal was critical of this God "of philosophers and wise men". The God who reveals himself in Jesus Christ presents another "profile", if we can put it that way. Its power manifests itself in its opposite, as Saint Paul of Tarsus vigorously underlined. This shows us the divine creative action in a very different way than according to the model of the manufacture of a machine."

"The word "proof" is often understood in the strong sense of "rigorous demonstration that leaves no room for interpretation." Admitting the conclusion of a mathematical theorem does not commit freedom. It can be used in a weaker sense, but I prefer to speak of "signs", as in the Gospel according to John. They are, if you like, "clues". That an unexpected event spurs me to give thanks to God poses no difficulty to me, even if other people can see the result of chance in it. The sign presupposes the commitment of a freedom."

"Journalist: According to you, the term "proof" does not apply to God. You prefer the term "sign". Why? God is not an entity of the same order as an atom or a galaxy. The existence of the atom is corroborated by theoretical schemes and experimental evidence. Almost the entire scientific community recognizes its existence. God, at least from my Christian point of view, is not a matter of demonstration. He is a personal God with whom we can establish a relationship. This is an act of faith and freedom. The word "proof" does not apply to the existence of God, because proof is a matter of logical reasoning, not of personal choice. When faced with a mathematical proof, we do not have the freedom to accept or reject the result. Even in physics, where there is no absolute certainty, scientists reach situations of consensus. The theory of general relativity, for example, is accepted by almost all scientists. But this is far from the case with the existence of God! A sign, however, requires interpretation. And interpretation refers to the freedom of the interpreter. If we have a pleasant encounter on the street, we can see it as a sign of God's benevolence or simply as a result of chance. It is a question of freedom of interpretation. No demonstration can conclude that we should have met that person on that day and at that time. The believer can be free to find signs of divine action in the structure of the universe. Isn't it a sign of something that the universe is so coherent? There is room for debate here. But this is not proof."

"From a Christian perspective, God is not a "thing", an object that exists like the desk I am sitting at exists, but a person with whom I am in a vital relationship. "Knowing" is not of the same order as knowing an electron, a chromosome or a galaxy: this presupposes a theoretical model and objective experimental verification. Proving the existence of the atom is one thing, but the same procedure cannot be used for the God who revealed himself in Jesus Christ. The relationship I form with him is about freedom."

"The Dalai Lama was little known, because he had never traveled abroad and was not yet a Nobel Prize winner, but he opened all the doors for me and I was able to film all the greats Tibetan masters, rinpothes and toulkus who had fled with him."

"At that time, the Dalai Lama was much more accessible, I had breakfast with him and spend long moments alone with him."

"The most filthy, dismal, and hideous of all I ever witnessed, and I doubt if there can be any other in the world more repulsive. Another particularly odious Edict of Faith was the obligation of Goa’s citizens to spy on behalf of the Inquisition. [Its] infamy never reached greater depths, nor was more vile, more black, and more completely determined by mundane interests than at the Tribunal of Goa, by irony called the Holy Office. Here the Inquisitors went to the length of imprisoning in its jails women who resisted their advances, and after having satisfied their bestial instincts there, ordering that they be burnt as heretics."

"Each Indian looks for God in his own way and worships one or several of the millions of deities who are the supposed reincarnation or expression of God, a Spirit or a Force. This has never led to a religious war. There have been communal clashes, but India has never had to face religious wars or crusades save those that were thrust on it from outside. The multiple revelation of the East has proved to be in many ways more advantageous than the single revelation of the West."