Edmond Rostand Quotes & Sayings

All our souls are written in our eyes. — Edmond Rostand

ROXANE. One hundred men against one: you! - So, good bye! - We are the best of friends, are we not? CYRANO. Assuredly, we are! — Edmond Rostand

How obvious it is now
the gift you gave him. All those letters, they were you ... All those beautiful powerful words, they were you!.. The voice from the shadows, that was you ... You always loved me! Roxanne — Edmond Rostand

A kiss! When all is said, what is a kiss? An oath of allegiance taken in closer proximity, a promise more precise, a seal on a confession, a rose-red dot upon the letter i in loving; a secret which elects the mouth for ear; an instant of eternity murmuring like a bee; balmy communion with a flavor of flowers; a fashion of inhaling each other's hearts, and of tasting, on the brink of the lips, each other's soul! — Edmond Rostand

A kiss is a secret which takes the lips for the ear. — Edmond Rostand

I love you more than yesterday, less than tomorrow. — Edmond Rostand

A man does not fight to win; it is better to fight in vain ... — Edmond Rostand

A large nose is in fact the sign of an affable man, good, courteous, witty, liberal, courageous, such as I am. — Edmond Rostand

I have a different idea of elegance. I don't dress like a fop, it's true, but my moral grooming is impeccable. I never appear in public with a soiled conscience, a tarnished honor, threadbare scruples, or an insult that I haven't washed away. I'm always immaculately clean, adorned with independence and frankness. I may not cut a stylish figure, but I hold my soul erect. I wear my deeds as ribbons, my wit is sharper then the finest mustache, and when I walk among men I make truths ring like spurs. — Edmond Rostand

Well when I write my book, and tell the tale of my adventures
all these little stars that shake out of my cloak
I must save those to use for asterisks! — Edmond Rostand

A great nose may be an index
Of a great soul — Edmond Rostand

And if kisses in these words could travel too, Madam, you'd read this letter with your lips. — Edmond Rostand

All my laurels you have riven away, and my roses; yet in spite of you, there is one crown I bear away with me ... One thing without stain, unspotted from the world, in spite of doom mine own! And that is ... my white plume. — Edmond Rostand

The dream, alone, is of interest. What is life, without a dream? — Edmond Rostand

I carry my adornments on my soul.
I do not dress up like a popinjay;
But inwardly, I keep my daintiness.
I do not bear with me, by any chance,
An insult not yet washed away- a conscience
Yellow with unpurged bile- an honor frayed
To rags, a set of scruples badly worn.
I go caparisoned in gems unseen,
Trailing white plumes of freedom, garlanded
With my good name- no figure of a man,
But a soul clothed in shining armor, hung
With deeds for decorations, twirling- thus-
A bristling wit, and swinging at my side
Courage, and on the stones of this old town
Making the sharp truth ring, like golden spurs! — Edmond Rostand

Stay awhile! 'Tis sweet, ...
The rare occasion, when our hearts can speak
Our selves unseen, unseeing! — Edmond Rostand

It is at night that faith in light is admirable. — Edmond Rostand

My soul, be satisfied with flowers,
With fruit, with weeds even; but gather them
In the one garden you may call your own. — Edmond Rostand

I would die at the stake rather than change a semi-colon! — Edmond Rostand

You must believe me when I believe, and not when I doubt. — Edmond Rostand

A man stands straighter under hostile eyes. — Edmond Rostand

Oh, don't take it so hard. I drove into this madness. Every woman needs a little madness in her life. — Edmond Rostand

I was wondering aimlessly; too many road were open ... too many resolves, too complex, allowed of being taken. I took ... by far the simplest of them all. — Edmond Rostand

Your neck. I want to kiss it. — Edmond Rostand

And what is a kiss, specifically? A pledge properly sealed, a promise seasoned to taste, a vow stamped with the immediacy of a lip, a rosy circle drawn around the verb 'to love.' A kiss is a message too intimate for the ear, infinity captured in the bee's brief visit to a flower, secular communication with an aftertaste of heaven, the pulse rising from the heart to utter its name on a lover's lip: 'Forever. — Edmond Rostand

A kiss, when all is said, what is it? An oath that's given closer than before; A promise more precise; the sealing of Confessions that till then were barely breathed; A rosy dot placed on the i in loving. — Edmond Rostand

Cyrano: The leaves
Roxane: What color
Perfect Venetian red! Look at them fall.
Cyrano: Yes
they know how to die. A little way
From the branch to the earth, a little fear
Of mingling with the common dust
and yet
They go down gracefully
a fall that seems
Like flying! — Edmond Rostand

To joke in the face of danger is the supreme politeness, a delicate refusal to cast oneself as a tragic hero; panache is therefore a timid heroism, like the smile with which one excuses one's superiority. — Edmond Rostand

They know how to die-a little way from the branch to the earth, a little fear of mingling with common dust and yet they go down gracefully-a fail that seems like flying! — Edmond Rostand

While master of myself, I'll not permit
The soothing beauty of a tear to roll
Along the crooked contours of this nose.
There's a sublimity in tears; and I
Would not debase them;
I would never turn
Something sublime to the ridiculous. — Edmond Rostand

Your name hangs in my heart like a bell's tongue. — Edmond Rostand

I sing, not to hear the echo repeat, a shade fainter, my song! I think of light and not of glory! Singing is my fashion of waging war and bearing witness. And if my song is the proudest of songs, it is that I sing clearly to make the day rise clear! — Edmond Rostand

My heart always timidly hides itself behind my mind. I set out to bring down stars from the sky, then, for fear of ridicule, I stop and pick little flowers of eloquence. — Edmond Rostand

She's a mortal danger without knowing it,
Undreamed of in her own dreams exquisite,
A roseleaf ambush where love lurks to seize
The unwary heart. The unwary eye that sees
Her smile sees pearled perfection. She can knit
Grace from a twine of air. The heavens sit
In every gesture. Of divinities, She's most divine. — Edmond Rostand

Where lurk sweet echoes of the dear homevoices, Each note of which calls like a little sister, Those airs slow, slow ascending, as the smokewreaths Rise from the hearthstones of our native hamlets Cyrano Act 5. — Edmond Rostand

A kiss, when all is said, what is it? A rosy dot placed on the "i" in loving; 'tis a secret told to the mouth instead of to the ear. — Edmond Rostand

I am what I am because early in life I decided that I would please at least myself in all things. — Edmond Rostand

After all, what is a kiss? A vow made at closer range, a more precise promise, a confession that contains its own proof, a seal placed on a pact that has already been signed; it's a secret told to the mouth rather than to the ear. — Edmond Rostand

My heart to yours sends but one cry:
If kisses fast could flee
By letter, then with your sweet lips
My letters read should be! — Edmond Rostand

I-I am going to be a storm-a flame- I need to fight whole armies alone; I have ten hearts; I have a hundred arms; I feel too strong to war with mortals- BRING ME GIANTS! — Edmond Rostand

She is a mortal danger without meaning to be one; she's exquisite without giving ita thought; shes a trap set by nature, a rose in which love lies in ambush!
Anyone who has seen her smile has known perfection. She creates grace without movement and makes all divinity fit into her slightest gesture.
And neither Venus in her shell, nor Diana striding in the great, blossoming forest, can compare to her when she goes through the streets of paris in her sedan chair. — Edmond Rostand

A kiss, when all is told, what is it? An oath taken a little closer, a promise more exact. A wish that longs to be confirmed, a rosy circle drawn around the verb 'to love'. A kiss is a secret which takes the lips for the ear, a moment of infinity humming like a bee, a communion tasting of flowers, a way of breathing in a little of the heart and tasting a little of the soul with the edge of the lips! — Edmond Rostand

Roxane: His face is like yours, burning with spirit and imagination. He is proud and noble and young and fearless and beautiful-
Cyrano:(losing all his colour.) Beautiful!
Roxane: Yes. What's wrong?
Cyrano: With me? Nothing. It's only ... only ... (Displaying his bandaged hand, with a little smile.) This fatal wound. — Edmond Rostand

Take it, and turn to facts my fantasies. — Edmond Rostand

Proclaim your pride and bitterness loudly to the world, but to me speak softly, and tell me simply that she doesn't love you. — Edmond Rostand

But ... to sing,
to dream, to smile, to walk, to be alone, be free,
with a voice that stirs and an eye that still can see!
To cock your hat to one side, when you please
at a yes, a no, to fight, or- make poetry!
To work without a thought of fame or fortune,
on that journey, that you dream of, to the moon!
Never to write a line that's not your own ... — Edmond Rostand

Speak to me ... be eloquent, be brilliant for me. Improvise! Rhapsodize! ... I ask for cream and you give me milk and water ... Please gather your dreams together into words. - Roxanne, Cyrano de Bergerac — Edmond Rostand

ROXANE:
Live, for I love you!
CYRANO:
No, In fairy tales
When to the ill-starred Prince the lady says 'I love you!' all his ugliness fades fast
But I remain the same, up to the last!
ROXANE:
I have marred your life
I, I!
CYRANO:
You blessed my life!
Never on me had rested woman's love.
My mother even could not find me fair:
I had no sister; and, when grown a man,
I feared the mistress who would mock at me.
But I have had your friendship
grace to you
A woman's charm has passed across my path.
— Edmond Rostand

I love you, but I should poorly serve the work to which I devote myself anew at the side of one to whom it were less than the greatest thing in the world! — Edmond Rostand

My nose is Gargantuan! You little Pig-snout, you tiny Monkey-Nostrils, you virtually invisible Pekinese-Puss, don't you realize that a nose like mine is both scepter and orb, a monument to me superiority? A great nose is the banner of a great man, a generous heart, a towering spirit, an expansive soul
such as I unmistakably am, and such as you dare not to dream of being, with your bilious weasel's eyes and no nose to keep them apart! With your face as lacking in all distinction
as lacking, I say, in interest, as lacking in pride, in imagination, in honesty, in lyricism
in a word, as lacking in nose as that other offensively bland expanse at the opposite end of your cringing spine
which I now remove from my sight by stringent application of my boot! — Edmond Rostand

Watching other people making friends, everywhere, as a dog makes friends. I mark the manner of these canine courtesies and think, here comes, thank Heaven, another enemy! — Edmond Rostand

To offend is my pleasure; I love to be hated. — Edmond Rostand

Stale words, what are they worth?
A moment comes and God help those for whom it never comes.
When love of such nobility possesses this shaking frame
That even the sweetest word, the ultimate honey, stings like vinegar. — Edmond Rostand

My wit is more polished than your mustache. The truth which I speak strikes more sparks from men's hearts than your spurs do from the cobblestones. — Edmond Rostand

I loved but once, yet twice I lose my love! — Edmond Rostand

Always the answer - yes! Let me die so -
Under some rosy-golden sunset, saying
A good thing, for a good cause! By the sword,
The point of honor - by the hand of one
Worthy to be my foeman, let me fall -
Steel in my heart, and laughter on my lips! — Edmond Rostand

No, In fairy tales When to the ill-starred Prince the lady says 'I love you!' all his ugliness fades fast But I remain the same, up to the last! — Edmond Rostand

A kiss is a rosy dot placed on the "i" in loving. — Edmond Rostand

The writer's voice, the honesty and candor that is present in that voice, is what must be written upon the page. — Edmond Rostand