266 Quotes by Guy de Maupassant

The bed comprehends our whole life, for we were born in it, we live in it, and we shall die in it.

The glasses were half full, which meant that the guests were completely so.

Daylight does not lend itself to terror: objects and people are plain to see; and we encounter there only those things which dare to show themselves in the glare of day. But night, opaque night denser than walls, night, empty and infinite and so black and fathomless that terrifying things reach out and touch us, night when we feel horror stirring, mysteriously prowling – night seemed to him to hide some unknown, imminent, threatening danger. What could it be?

Institutionalised love always looks down on her more liberal sister.

There can be no doubt that loneliness is dangerous to active minds.

Ah! Those silly songs make us lose our heads; and, believe me, never marry a woman who sings in the country, especially if she sings the song of Musette!

But it is sufficient to reflect for a moment, in order to understand that this world was not made for such creatures as we are. Thought, which is developed by a miracle in the nerves of the cells in our brain, powerless, ignorant and confused as it is, and as it will always remain, makes all of us who are intellectual beings eternal and wretched exiles on earth.

I think I have already told you that there are certain things which it is not necessary to discuss, and this is one of them.

Monsieur, beware of love! It is lying in ambush everywhere; it is watching for you at every corner; all its snares are laid, all its weapons are sharpened, all its guiles are prepared! Beware of love! Beware of love! It is more dangerous than brandy, bronchitis or pleurisy! It never forgives and makes everybody commit irreparable follies.