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
leaving temptation sin
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 and the fear of that sin.
dream women thinking
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 of the world is a woman; the rest are simply females.
despair infinity debauchery
Debauchery is perhaps an act of despair in the face of infinity.
genius talent persons
Genius is the talent of a person who is dead.
safe moral painting
As a general truth, it is safe to say that any picture that produces a moral impression is a bad picture.
betrayal men mind
Man is a mind betrayed, not served, by his organs.
firsts facts matter
The facts: nothing matters but the facts: worship of the facts leads to everything, to happiness first of all and then to wealth.
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.
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.
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.
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.
past stories novelists
Historians tell the story of the past, novelists the story of the present.
laughter laughing mind
Laughter is the mind's intonation. There are ways of laughing which have the sound of counterfeit coins.
children class ordinary
Princes enjoy themselves like children in the company of ordinary human beings.