Guy de Maupassant

memory perfect world life dead

“Our memory is a more perfect world than the universe: it gives back life to those who no longer exist.”

— Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893)

lives encounter life worth living

“It is the lives we encounter that make life worth living.”

— Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893)

strange art music poetic precise vague dream algebra

“...A strange art – music – the most poetic and precise of all the arts, vague as a dream and precise as algebra.”

— Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893)

everything false possible doubtful

“Everything is false, everything is possible, everything is doubtful.”

— Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893)

past attract present frighten future death

“The past attracts me, the present frightens me, because the future is death.”

— Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893)

certainty death

“The only certainty is death.”

— Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893)

life slope up top happy downhill death slow quick

“Life is a slope. As long as you're going up you're always looking towards the top and you feel happy, but when you reach it, suddenly you can see the road going downhill and death at the end of it all. It's slow going up and quick going down.”

— Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893)

encounters people worth living

“It is the encounters with people that make life worth living.”

— Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893)

mediocrite fools majority elect intelligent government democracy

"You have the army of mediocrities followed by the multitude of fools. As the mediocrities and the fools always form the immense majority, it is impossible for them to elect an intelligent government."

— Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893)

abstinence pervertion

"Abstinence is the worst form of perversion."

— Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893)

government avoid war captain shipwreck

"Every government has as much of a duty to avoid war as a ship's captain has to avoid a shipwreck."

— Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893)