Edmond de Goncourt
Edmond de Goncourt
Edmond de Goncourt, born Edmond Louis Antoine Huot de Goncourt, was a French writer, literary critic, art critic, book publisher and the founder of the Académie Goncourt...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth26 May 1822
CountryFrance
genius talent persons
Genius is the talent of a person who is dead.
novel could-have-been has-beens
History is a novel that has been lived, a novel is history that could have been.
beauty art eye
Lord Byron is an exceedingly interesting person, and as such is it not to be regretted that he is a slave to the vilest and most vulgar prejudices, and as mad as the winds? There have been many definitions of beauty in art. What is it? Beauty is what the untrained eyes consider abominable.
honest individual crooked
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 crooked as individuals.
laughter laughing mind
Laughter is the mind's intonation. There are ways of laughing which have the sound of counterfeit coins.
past stories novelists
Historians tell the story of the past, novelists the story of the present.
years civilization world
Barbarism is needed every four or five hundred years to bring the world back to life. Otherwise it would die of civilization.
children class ordinary
Princes enjoy themselves like children in the company of ordinary human beings.
men self giving
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, to do good to them or simply give them something to do, is unhappy, disconsolate, and accursed.
statistics firsts
Statistics is the first of the inexact sciences.
despair infinity debauchery
Debauchery is perhaps an act of despair in the face of infinity.
two envy political
There are only two great currents in the history of mankind: the baseness which makes conservatives and the envy which makes revolutionaries.
war missing society
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 and not miss anything.
age age-and-aging finds looks men modern reason sadness truth
The reason for the sadness of this modern age and the men who live in it is that it looks for the truth in everything and finds it.