Bien Quotes & Sayings

I hate to tell you this," she said with an apologetic smile, "but I don't think you're as special as you think you are."
"That only hurts because it's true. You really like me? A little?"
"Un peu. Enough that I want to talk to you instead of letting me fuck you," she said.
"Oh," he said, and weighed his words. "But we are still going to fuck, right?"
Juliette smiled again. And in her flawless elegant Frenchy she purred two beautiful words.
"Bien sur."
Of course. — Tiffany Reisz

Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien. (The perfect is the enemy of the good.) — Voltaire

5. That people do not believe in you or in your ideas does not necessary mean that you are not good or that your ideas are not good enough. The problem is not with you but with them. For every great invention, we have today encountered this opposition. If you, therefore want to be great you must learn not to live your life based on the opinion of others but on your convictions. — Bien Sufficient

...You, you look -- bien -- exactly what you were, a high-ranking British officer, used to unwavering obedience and with the air of a Greek god, gazing down on us mere mortals. — Marguerite Kaye

Apre' s le rare bonheur de trouver une compagne qui nous soit bien assortie, l'e tat le moins malheureux de la vie est sans doute de vivre seul. After the rare happiness of finding a companion with whom we are well matched, the least unpleasant state of life is without doubt to live alone. — Jacques-Henri Bernardin De Saint-Pierre

There is nothing my mind can conceive, my heart can believe, my eyes can see and my soul can visualize that I cannot do. Even if the whole world says I can't, it's just a matter of time and I will get it done. — Bien Sufficient

The forces of determination and hard-work are forces that failure can not stand against. — Bien Sufficient

Eh Bien you like this sacred pig of a country?" asked Marco. "Why not? I like it anywhere. It's all the same, in France you are paid badly and live well; here you are paid well and live badly. — John Dos Passos

Il faut travailler sinon par go u t, au moins par de sespoir, puisque, tout bien ve rifie , travailler est moins ennuyeux que s'amuser. We should work: if not by preference, at least out of despair. All things considered, work is less boring than amusement. — Charles Baudelaire

Singing and dancing alone will not advance one in the world.
[Fr., Qui bien chante et bien danse fait un metier qui peu avance.] — Jean-Jacques Rousseau

This development is possibly related to the fact that so much of "value" has been absorbed by technology itself. It is "good" to electrify a primitive area. Civilization and even morality are implicit in technological transformation ... New techniques are in themselves bien pensant and represent not only rationality but benevolence ... Romantic individuals (a mass of them by now) accuse this mass civilization of obstructing their attainment of beauty, nobility, integrity, intensity. I do not want to sneer at the term Romantic. Romanticism guarded the "inspired condition," preserved the poetic, philosophical, and religious teachings ... during the greatest and most rapid of transformations, the most accelerated phase of modern scientific and technical transformation. — Saul Bellow

One can press a man as far as one likes - but with a woman one must not press too far. For a woman has at heart a great desire to speak the truth. How many husbands who have deceived their wives go comfortably to their graves, carrying their secret with them! How many wives who have deceived their husbands wreck their lives by throwing the fact in those same husbands' teeth! They have been pressed too far. In a reckless moment (which they will afterwards regret, bien entendu) they fling safety to the winds and turn at bay, proclaiming the truth with great momentary satisfaction to themselves. — Agatha Christie

The problem is that one man's superstition is another man's religion, and vice versa. Many Protestants today still see Catholicism as being rife with superstition, ... while atheists and agnostics would see bien-pensant Protestants as worshiping an equally absurd form of the supernatural. — David Gibson

Un auteur ga te tout quand il veut trop bien faire. An author spoils everything when he wants too much to do good. — Jean De La Fontaine

Celebrate you! For if you don't, no one will. — Bien Sufficient

I love you not because you are deserving of my love but because it is my number one duty as a Christian.There is no Christianity without true love! — Bien Sufficient

If you know who you are, then it will not be difficult for you to stand your ground and on your convictions. — Bien Sufficient

Maybe the cat has fallen into the stew, or the lettuce has frozen, or the cake has collapsed. Eh bien, tant pis. Usually one's cooking is better than one thinks it is. And if the food is truly vile, then the cook must simply grit her teeth and bear it with a smile, and learn from her mistakes. — Julia Child

If development was measured not by gross national product, but a society's success in meeting the basic needs of its people, Vietnam would have been a model. That was its real "threat." From the defeat of the French at Dien Bien Phu in 1954 to 1972, primary and secondary school enrollment in the North increased sevenfold, from 700,000 to almost five million. In 1980, UNESCO estimated a literacy rate of 90 percent and school enrollment among the highest in Asia and throughout the Third World. — John Pilger

Unlike the huge majority of the current generation in the West, the men on both sides at Dien Bien Phu did not live at a time or in places where they enjoyed the luxury of disregarding [that war is what human beings do]; and we, who are lifelong civilians, have not earned the right to sit in judgement over them. — Martin Windrow

Whatsoever you set your hands on doing, do it in such a way that your work will always stand out. — Bien Sufficient

Do you wish people to speak well of you?
Then do not speak at all yourself.
[Fr., Voulez-vous qu'on croie du bien de vous?
N'en dites point.] — Blaise Pascal

Le mal de vivre, 'the pain of life.' Qu'll faut bien vivre ... 'that we must live with, or endure.' Vaille que vivre, this is difficult but it is something like 'we must live the life we have. We must soldier on. — Ruth Ozeki

Eh bien, then, you are crazy, or appear crazy or you think you are crazy, and possibly you may be crazy. — Agatha Christie

Eh bien! I no see not that that frog has nothing of better than another. — Mark Twain

No one ever became great without troubles. Troubles are opportunities for greatness in disguise — Bien Sufficient

Of a certainty Madame has died," Leonie said wickedly. "Tiens, c'est bien drole! — Georgette Heyer

I love it when people tell me you can't. For the very moment they say you can't, they challenge the "I can" that lies deep down within me, and the result is always positive. The I can in me rises up to the challenge and gets the job done. — Bien Sufficient

The person you think is useless and a nobody today, might be the very person you will need tomorrow. Never look down on anyone. — Bien Sufficient

Vous avez, une vie bien vivre ... You have one life, live it well! — Timothy Pina

Why Your Dog Is Happier Than You Are — Thomas Bien

4. Real men are men who have devoted their lives to solving the problem of others and giving a helping hand to those they meet in their journey through life. These are the kind of men that history can never forget. — Bien Sufficient

When you live your life seeking the opinion and approval of others, you become a slave in your mind and soul to others. This is the worst form of slavery. — Bien Sufficient

Bien predica quien bien vive.
He who lives well is the best preacher. — Miguel De Cervantes

O Voltaire! O humanity! O idiocy! There is something ticklish in "the truth," and in the SEARCH for the truth; and if man goes about it too humanely - "il ne cherche le vrai que pour faire le bien" - I wager he finds nothing! — Friedrich Nietzsche

Remember, for there to be any change in your life circumstances, you must change. You must improve yourself. You must develop your mind. You must change your company. If you want to fly like the eagles, then you have to make friends with the Eagles and not with chickens. You can't be in the company of chickens and hope to fly like the Eagles someday. Life does not work that way. — Bien Sufficient

I gather," he added, "that you've never had much time to study the classics?"
"That is so."
"Pity. Pity. You've missed a lot. Everyone should be made to study the classics, if I had my way."
Poirot shrugged his shoulders.
"Eh bien, I have got on very well without them."
"Got on! Got on? It's not a question of getting on. That's the wrong view all together. The classics aren't a ladder leading to quick success, like a modern correspondence course! It's not a man's working hours that are important
it's his leisure hours. That's the mistake we all make. Take yourself now, you're getting on, you'll be wanting to get out of things, to take things easy
what are you going to do then with your leisure hours? — Agatha Christie

...A thing that is worth doing at all is worth doing badly... le mieux est l'ennemi du bien. — Beverley Nichols

A good man ("un homme de bien", Fr.) never wholly perishes, the best part of his being outlives (or survives) in eternity. — African Spir

I don't know why dogs always go for postmen, I'm sure," continued our guide.
"It's a matter of reasoning," said Poirot. "The dog, he argues from reason. He is intelligent; he makes his deductions according to his point of view. There are people who may enter a house and there are people who may not - that a dog soon learns. Eh bien, who is the person who most persistently tries to gain admission, rattling on the door twice or three times a day - and who is never by any chance admitted? The postman. Clearly, then, an undesirable guest from the point of view of the master of the house. He is always sent about his business, but he persistently returns and tries again. Then a dog's duty is clear, to aid in driving this undesirable man away, and to bite him if possible. A most reasonable proceeding. — Agatha Christie

using Spring inside a plain old web container as an alternative stack is a perfectly viable alternative to Java EE 6. — Adam Bien

No one is self sufficient, No one has it all, No one knows it all, until you understand these facts and learn to live for others, you have not started living. — Bien Sufficient

Eh! Je suis leur chef, il fallait bien les suivre. (Ah well! I am their leader, I really ought to follow them.) — Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin

The memory of the dead is indeed a good remorse. (Le souvenir des morts - Est bien un bon remords) — Charles De Leusse

O tyrant love, when held by you,
We may to prudence bid adieu.
[Fr., Amour! Amour! quand tu nous tiens
On peut bien dire, Adieu, prudence.] — Jean De La Fontaine

Esta bien," Clara called back. They sat in silence a while longer. "You seem pretty relaxed," she said to Billy. "Pretty — Catherine Ryan Hyde

January 8, 1959; Castro enters Havana
On January 8, 1959, Fidel made his grand entrance into Havana. With his son Fidelito at his side, he rode on top of a Sherman tank to Camp Columbia, where he gave the first of his long, rambling, difficult-to-endure speeches. It was broadcast on radio and television for the entire world to witness. For the Cubans it was what they had waited for! During the speech, smiling Castro asked Camilo Cienfuegos, "How am I doing?" and the catch phrase "Voy bien, Camilo" was born. — Hank Bracker