All Edmond de Goncourt Quotes
- Princes enjoy themselves like children in the company of ordinary human beings. Beings
- Surely nothing has to listen to so many stupid remarks as a painting in a museum. Art
- There are only two great currents in the history of mankind: the baseness which makes conservatives and the envy which makes revolutionaries. Baseness
- As a general truth, it is safe to say that any picture that produces a moral impression is a bad picture. Any
- She is unable to dream, think or love. In a woman, poetry never comes naturally, but always as the result of education. Only the woman… Comes Naturally
- 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… Always Derived
- Statistics is the first of the inexact sciences. Firsts
- Debauchery is perhaps an act of despair in the face of infinity. Act
- Genius is the talent of a person who is dead. Dead
- There have been many definitions of beauty in art. What is it? Beauty is what the untrained eyes consider abominable. Abominable
- Man is a mind betrayed, not served, by his organs. Betrayal
- The facts: nothing matters but the facts: worship of the facts leads to everything, to happiness first of all and then to wealth. All
- Any man who does not see everything in terms of self, that is to say who wants to be something in respect of other men,… Accursed
- 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… Better
- 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… Artist
- Barbarism is needed every four or five hundred years to bring the world back to life. Otherwise it would die of civilization. Barbarism
- Historians tell the story of the past, novelists the story of the present. Historian
- Laughter is the mind's intonation. There are ways of laughing which have the sound of counterfeit coins. Coins
- People don't like the true and simple; they like fairy tales and humbug. Civilization
- 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… Contrary
- If there is a God, atheism must seem to Him as less of an insult than religion. Atheism
- 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… Absence
- A painting in a museum hears more ridiculous opinions than anything else in the world. Anything Else
- A poet is a man who puts up a ladder to a star and climbs it while playing a violin. Climbs
- History is a novel that has been lived, a novel is history that could have been. Been