57 Quotes by Irene Nemirovsky

Deep within everyone's heart there always remains a sense of longing for that hour, that summer, that one brief moment of blossoming. For several weeks or months, rarely longer, a beautiful young woman lives outside ordinary life. She is intoxicated. She feels as if she exists beyond time, beyond its laws; she experiences not the monotonous succession of days passing by, but moments of intense, almost desperate happiness.

Waiting is erotic

Heureux sont ceux qui peuvent aimer et haïr sans feinte, sans détour, sans nuance.

...because all happiness is contagious, and disarms the spirit of hatred.

Elle variait ses hallucinations à son gré. Elle ne se contentait pas du passé; elle escomptait l'avenir! Elle changeait le présent selon sa volonté; elle mentait et se trompait elle-même, mais comme ses mensonges étaient ses propres oeuvres, elle les chérissait. Pour de brefs instants, elle était heureuse. Il n'y avait plus à son bonheur ces limites imposées par le réel. Tout était possible, tout était à sa portée. D'abord, la guerre était finie.

Her grandfather's books [...] opened before Ada, a world whose colours were so dazzling that reality paled in comparison and faded away. Boris Godunov, Satan, Athalia, King Lear: they all spoke words charged with meaning; every syllable was inexpressively precious

For there comes a time in life when the pity previously reserved only for children takes on a different form, a time when we study the faces of 'old people' and sense that one day we will be just like them. And that is the moment when early childhood comes to an end.

En el fondo, seguía siendo, y siempre sería, una niña tímida que sólo se sentía a gusto en una soledad montaraz.

Evenimentele grave, fericite sau nefericite, nu schimbă sufletul unui om, ci îl conturează mai bine, la fel cum o pală de vânt care ridică brusc frunzele moarte scoate la iveală forma unui copac. Ele scot la lumină ceea ce era lăsat la umbră. Înclină spiritul în direcția în care va crește de atunci înainte.