Authors From France

"You cannot be a Hindu fundamentalist. It does not mean anything .. .The concept of fundamentalism does not exist in Hinduism."

"Where once, before King Arthur had made his chivalry, the Knight of the Tower Landry had been compelled to warn his daughter against entering her own dining hall in the evening unaccompanied—for fear of what might happen in the dark corners—now there was music and light."

"I woll tell you an ensaumple of a woman that ete the good morsell in the absence of her husbonde. Ther was a woman that had a pie in a cage, that spake and wolde tell talys that she saw do. And so it happed that her husbonde made kepe a gret ele in a litell ponde in his gardin, to that entent to yeue it sum of his frendes that wolde come to see hym; but the wyff, whanne her husbond was oute, saide to her maide, 'late us ete the gret ele, and y will saie to my husbond that the otour hathe eten hym;' and so it was done. And whan the good man was come, the pye began to tell hym how her maistresse had eten the ele. And he yode to the ponde, and fonde not the ele. And he asked his wiff wher the ele was become. And she wende to have excused her, but he saide her, 'excuse you not, for y wote well ye have eten yt, for the pye hathe told me.' And so ther was gret noyse betwene the man and hys wiff for etinge of the ele. But whanne the good man was gone, the maistresse and the maide come to the pie, and plucked of all the fedres on the pyes hede, saieng, 'thou hast discovered us of the ele;' and thus was the pore pye plucked. But ever after, whanne the pie sawe a balled or a pilled man, or a woman with an high forhede, the pie saide to hem, 'ye spake of the ele.' And therfor here is an ensaumple that no woman shulde ete no lycorous morcelles in the absens and withoute weting of her husbond, but yef it so were that it be with folk of worshipp, to make hem chere; for this woman was afterward mocked for the pye and the ele."

"As the Professor left, Marek said, "I pray God look with favor upon your journey and deliver you safe back." That was what he always said to departing friends. It had been a favorite phrase of the Count Geoffrey de la Tour, six hundred years before.""

"In short, Indian science was born out of a mystical and religious culture and the etymology of the Sanskrit words used to describe numbers and the science of numbers bears witness to this fact.""

"In India, an aptitude for the study of numbers and arithmetical research was often combined with a surprising tendency towards metaphysical abstractions; in fact, the latter is so deeply ingrained in Indian thought and tradition that one meets it in all fields of study, from the most advanced mathematical ideas to disciplines completely unrelated to 'exact sciences.""

"Sanskrit means "complete", "perfect" and "definitive". In fact, this language is extremely elaborate, almost artificial, and is capable of describing multiple levels of meditation, states of consciousness and psychic, spiritual and even intellectual processes. As for vocabulary, its richness is considerable and highly diversified. Sanskrit has for centuries lent itself admirably to the diverse rules of prosody and versification. Thus we can see why poetry has played such a preponderant role in all of Indian culture and Sanskrit literature." 604"

"The Indian people were the only civilization to take the decisive step towards the perfection of numerical notation. We owe the discovery of modern numeration and the elaboration of the very foundations of written calculations to India alone.""

"The Indian mind has always had for calculations and the handling of numbers an extraordinary inclination, ease and power, such as no other civilization in history ever possessed to the same degree. So much so that Indian culture regarded the science of numbers as the noblest of its arts ... A thousand years ahead of Europeans, Indian savants knew that the zero and infinity were mutually inverse notions."

"It is clear how much we owe to this brilliant civilization, and not only in the field of arithmetic; by opening the way to the generalization of the concept of the number, the Indian scholars enabled the rapid development of mathematics and exact sciences. The discoveries of these men doubtless required much time and imagination, and above all a great ability for abstract thinking. These major discoveries took place within an environment which was at once mystical, philosophical, religious, cosmological, mythological and metaphysical.""

"Ancient Indian culture has regarded the science of numbers as the noblest of its arts … A thousand years ahead of Europeans, Indian savants knew that zero and infinity were mutually inverse notions. In short, Indian science was born out of a mystical and religious culture and the etymology of the Sanskrit word used to describe numbers and the science of numbers bears witn The early passion which Indian civilization had for high numbers was a significant factor contributing to the discovery of the place-value system, and not only offered the Indians the incentive to go beyond the calculable physical world, but also led to an understanding much earlier than in our civilization of the notion of mathematical infinity itself."

"The work of others disgusts me, and I don't like my own. That's my strength and my weakness. (October 12, C.E.1900; Vergani, p. 174)"

"Barring complications, he will die. (October 12, C.E.1900; Vergani, p. 174)"

"[Leaf|leaves]] move like the lips of a child who doesn't quite know his lesson and who is looking for what he has to say. (December 17, C.E.1900; Vergani, p. 175)"

"remorse go back and forth dressed in a small carabiniere suit. (October 9, C.E.1900; Vergani, p. 173)"

"In some friends there is nothing pleasant but their virginity. When you got married to them, things don't go well anymore. (October 9, C.E.1900; Vergani, p. 173)"

"People who have themselves cremated think that, reduced to ashes, they will escape from God. (October 12, 1900; Vergani, p. 174)"

"Life leads to anything, as long as you get out of it. (January 8, C.E.1901; Vergani, p. 177)"

"Our goodness is but our badness that sleeps. (June 2, C.E.1900; Vergani, p. 169)"

"I can't look at a tree without being crushed by the universe. (June 16, C.E.1900; Vergani, p. 169)"

"Those who have spoken best of death are all dead. (August 9, C.E.1900; Vergani, p. 172)"

"I proceed through life like a mole. From time to time, I drop some dirt. A brief clearing. Then, back in the dark. (May 10, C.E.1900; Vergani, p. 168)"

"If you remember me with a statue, make a hole in it so that the birds can come and drink it. (December 10, C.E.1899; Vergani, p. 156)"

"The peasants carry their heavy hands as if they were carrying old tools. (June 2, C.E.1900; Vergani, p. 169)"

"The white blackbird exists, but it is so white that you can't see it. The black blackbird is but its shadow. (August 11, C.E.1900; Vergani, p. 172)"

"That little girl seems to be in a cage behind her grandiose undulating harp, and she keeps scratching the bars of her cage with her fingers. (January 28, C.E.1901; Vergani, p. 178)"

"The word is the excuse of thought. (17 April 1896)"

"If I had talent, I would be imitated. If I were imitated, I would become fashionable. If I became fashionable, I would quickly go out of style. It is better, then, that I have no talent. (April 21, C.E.1896; Vergani, p. 108)"

"If the house of happiness were to be built, the largest room would be the waiting room. (August 1, C.E.1899)"

"I will also sign the petition for pardon for Oscar Wilde, provided that he gives his word of honor not to write any more. (December 6, C.E.1895; Vergani, p. 98)"

"The mimosa is, among flowers, what the canary is among birds. (February 20, C.E.1896; Vergani, p. 108)"

"To ward off the storm, all kinds of cowardice can be committed: praying to God, or pretending to work, or saving the fly that was about to burn at the flame of the candle. (June 6, C.E.1896; Vergani, p. 109)"

"The [[hare]'s lair, even if the hare is absent, is always full of fear. (September 23, C.E.1899; Vergani, p. 155)"

"When one reads the story of an exemplary life, such as that of Balzac, one always arrives at the story of death. So, what good is it to be exemplary? (August 27, C.E.1895; Vergani, p. 96)"

"Cheerful as when it's raining and you know a friend is out and he's taking it all out. (August 10, C.E.1895; Vergani, p. 95)"

"Women's breasts are shaped like large insecticidal powder bellows. (September 19, C.E.1895; Vergani, p. 96)"

"The cat is the life of furniture. (February 11, C.E.1899; Vergani, p. 151)"

"If you were to announce to me the death of my little girl whom I love so much, and in your words there was a picturesque one, I could not hear it without being fascinated by it. (July 9, C.E.1896; Vergani, pp. 109-110)"

"Everything we are we put in our first book. Later on, we only pluck out the weeds of our faults and cultivate our first qualities, when we really manage to do something. (May 1, C.E.1899; Vergani, p. 152)"

"At the bottom of all patriotism is war: that's why I'm not a patriot. (June 14, C.E.1899; Vergani, p. 153)"

"A bit of profanity emphasizes talent. (October 26, C.E.1899; Vergani, p. 155)"

"You go to visit a sick person to tell you about all the illnesses you have had or that others have had. (February 18, C.E.1901; Vergani, p. 180)"

"The moment the condemned person has his head stuck in the guillotine, there should be a silence before the blade falls. A Republican Guard should come out of the ranks and hand the executioner an envelope. The executioner should say to the condemned, "It is your grace!" and at the same time he should drop the blade. The condemned man would thus die happily. (June 22, C.E.1894; Vergani, p. 77)"

"Small white clouds rise over there as if shearing wool on the back of hills. (July 1, C.E.1894; Vergani, p. 77)"

"Return to Paris. Paris smells like square carriages. (July 19, C.E.1895; Vergani, p. 95)"

"A truly free man is one who knows how to refuse an invitation to dinner without giving pretexts. (November 25, C.E.1895)"

"roosters have apoplectic crests. (May 12, C.E.1895; Vergani, p. 95)"

"Glory is no more than a colonial genre. (July 18, C.E.1896; Vergani, p. 110)"

"Criticism is the art of reproaching others for not having the qualities we think we have. (July 29, C.E.1895; Vergani, p. 95)"

"I can swim just enough to restrain myself from saving others. (July 20, C.E.1898; Vergani, p. 149)"