Historians tell the story of the past, novelists the story of the present. Edmond de Goncourt More Quotes by Edmond de Goncourt More Quotes From Edmond de Goncourt If there is a God, atheism must seem to Him as less of an insult than religion. Edmond de Goncourt if-there-is-a-god atheist religion Today I begin to understand what love must be, if it exists... When we are parted, we each feel the lack of the other half of ourselves. We are incomplete like a book in two volumes of which the first has been lost. That is what I imagine love to be: incompleteness in absence. Edmond de Goncourt sad love life People don't like the true and simple; they like fairy tales and humbug. Edmond de Goncourt fairy-stories simple civilization A painting in a museum hears more ridiculous opinions than anything else in the world. Edmond de Goncourt museums world art As a general truth, it is safe to say that any picture that produces a moral impression is a bad picture. Edmond de Goncourt moral safe art The past is of no importance. The present is of no importance. It is with the future that we have to deal. For the past is what man should not have been. The present is what man ought not to be. The future is what artists are. Edmond de Goncourt artist men past Barbarism is needed every four or five hundred years to bring the world back to life. Otherwise it would die of civilization. Edmond de Goncourt philosophy years art There are only two great currents in the history of mankind: the baseness which makes conservatives and the envy which makes revolutionaries. Edmond de Goncourt envy political two A poet is a man who puts up a ladder to a star and climbs it while playing a violin. Edmond de Goncourt stars poetry men Lord Byron is an exceedingly interesting person, and as such is it not to be regretted that he is a slave to the vilest and most vulgar prejudices, and as mad as the winds? Edmond de Goncourt eye beauty art Statistics is the first of the inexact sciences. Edmond de Goncourt statistics firsts One of the proud joys of the man of letters - if that man of letters is an artist - is to feel within himself the power to immortalize at will anything he chooses to immortalize. Insignificant though he may be, he is conscious of possessing a creative divinity. God creates lives; the man of imagination creates fictional lives which may make a profound and as it were more living impression on the world's memory. Edmond de Goncourt artist memories book There have been many definitions of beauty in art. What is it? Beauty is what the untrained eyes consider abominable. Edmond de Goncourt eye beauty art I have always derived indescribable pleasure from leading a decent woman to the edge of sin and leaving her there to live between the temptation and the fear of that sin. Edmond de Goncourt leaving sin temptation Laughter is the mind's intonation. There are ways of laughing which have the sound of counterfeit coins. Edmond de Goncourt laughter mind laughing I feel sure that coups d'état would go much better if there were seats, boxes, and stalls so that one could see what was happening and not miss anything. Edmond de Goncourt missing war funny Sickness sensitizes man for observation, like a photographic plate. Edmond de Goncourt sickness health men The English are crooked as a nation and honest as individuals. The contrary is true of the French, who are honest as a nation and crooked as individuals. Edmond de Goncourt crooked individual honest Surely nothing has to listen to so many stupid remarks as a painting in a museum. Edmond de Goncourt stupid museums art Genius is the talent of a person who is dead. Edmond de Goncourt talent genius persons
