“The only man who is truly happy is a man who has an idée fixe. It takes up his every minute, fills any empty spaces in his thought, sneaks unexpected pleasures into his boredom, gives direction to his idle hours,… — Georges Rodenbach Copy Share Image
“Mevr. Cadzand feared for her son who, with his responsive nature, as sensitive as a hothouse plant, was more exposed. Fortunately religion is a means of protection, of diverting energies into other channels. Hans's mother was glad that they had cultivated his piety at the college and that she herself, with altars in the month of Mary, novenas, candles lit,… — Georges Rodenbach Copy Share
“A great melancholy was hanging in the air, giving their love a more languid, more tender feeling. It was like the love one feels before a separation, it was like love in a country where there is a war, in a town where epidemics are raging. A strong love, from feeling close to death. Here death reigned, it was as… — Georges Rodenbach Copy Share
“Oh, the sudden change of perspective brought about by travel and absence! How different everything was here: the people in the streets, the houses, the color of the air, the sky above the roofs, a low sky, very close, with molded clouds, and which looked as if it had come out of a painting. A unique setting, a subtle atmosphere… — Georges Rodenbach Copy Share
“All lovers desire solitude in order to possess each other more completely. They create for each other a new universe inhabited by the two… — Georges Rodenbach Copy Share Image
“Now Borluut was seeing it from close to. And to its very end, it seemed, from the way the line of the horizon merged… — Georges Rodenbach Copy Share Image
“He felt alone, prey to the tedium, to the dreariness of time, especially at the approach of twilight which, during those late-autumn days, came… — Georges Rodenbach Copy Share Image
Can there be anything more sad than a girl dying on the day of her first communion, in her new dress. A little bride… — Georges Rodenbach Copy Share Image
“Dead towns are the Cathedrals of Silence. They, too, have their gargoyles, singular figures, exaggerated, dubious, set in high profile. They stand out from… — Georges Rodenbach Copy Share Image
“Is it not strange how quickly one can become detached from everything? How empty life appears when one is close to death!” — Georges Rodenbach Copy Share Image
“(We) fell out of love with life for having learnt too much of death. ("At School")” — Georges Rodenbach Copy Share Image
“Does it not sometimes happen in life that our actions are solely for an enemy, so as to stand up to him, to confound… — Georges Rodenbach Copy Share Image
“That is the way it is, we always fall in love because of a detail, a nuance. It is a marker we set up… — Georges Rodenbach Copy Share Image
