Quotes from A Sentimental Education

Quotations follow the Robert Baldick translation (Penguin Classics, 2004) — our recommended edition.

1. 2

   "That was the best time we ever had!" said Frederick. "Yes, perhaps so, indeed! It was the best time we ever had," said Deslauriers.

2. 3

   He travelled. He realised the melancholy associated with packet-boats, the chill one feels on waking up under tents, the dizzy effect of landscapes and ruins, and the bitterness of ruptured sympathies. He returned home.

3. 4

   He travelled. He came to know the melancholy of steamships, cold awakenings under canvas, the tedium of landscapes and ruins, the bitterness of broken friendships.

4. 5

   On the 15th of September, 1840, about six o'clock in the morning, the Ville de Montereau, just on the point of starting, was sending forth great whirlwinds of smoke, in front of the Quai St. Bernard.

5. 6

   What he then saw was like an apparition.

6. 7

   And she kissed him on the forehead, like a mother.

7. 8

   The hearts of women are like little pieces of furniture wherein things are secreted, full of drawers fitted into each other; one hurts himself, breaks his nails in opening them, and then finds within only some withered flower, a few grains of dust—or emptiness!

8. 9

   For certain men action becomes more difficult as desire becomes stronger. They are embarrassed by self-distrust, and terrified by the fear of making themselves disliked. Besides, deep attachments resemble virtuous women: they are afraid of being discovered, and pass through life with downcast eyes.

9. 10

   There is nothing so humiliating as to see blockheads succeed in undertakings in which we fail.

10. 11

    She had wanted to make sure that he had not forgotten her.

11. 12

    Years passed; and he was forced to support the burthen of a life in which his mind was unoccupied and his heart devoid of energy.

12. 13

    Exuberance is better than taste; the desert is better than a street-pavement, and a savage is better than a hairdresser!