Quotes from The Charterhouse of Parma

Quotations follow the Richard Howard translation (Modern Library, 1999) — our recommended edition.

1. 2

   Politics in a work of literature are like a pistol-shot in the middle of a concert, something loud and vulgar and yet a thing to which it is not possible to refuse one's attention.

2. 3

   What distressed him most was that he had not asked Corporal Aubry the question: 'Have I really taken part in a battle?'

3. 4

   The lover thinks more often of reaching his mistress than the husband of guarding his wife; the prisoner thinks more often of escaping than the gaoler of shutting his door; and so, whatever the obstacles may be, the lover and the prisoner ought to succeed.

4. 5

   There's one convenience about absolute power, that it sanctifies everything in the eyes of the people.

5. 6

   The presence of danger inspires a man of sense with genius, raising him, so to speak, above himself; in the man of imagination it inspires romances, which may indeed be bold, but which are frequently absurd.

6. 7

   In love, unlike most other passions, the recollection of what you have had and lost is always better than what you can hope for in the future.

7. 8

   The only real prison is the fear of love, and the only real freedom is to love without fear.