C'est Quotes & Sayings

How foolish that expectation had been! He knew now that one might as well hope to see the wind, or speculate about the true shape of fire. — Arthur C. Clarke

Battle is for an army to win or lose; war is for civilization to win or lose. — Ian C. Esslemont

Genius is often a short way of spelling hard work. Poverty, obscurity, struggle and ambition formed the foundation for many careers of transcendent achievement. Few marks are made in the world's history by eight-hour-day men ... Sir Joshua Reynolds had but one maxim for success: Work, work, work. Is not rigid and continuous training necessary for the making of strong athletes? Hard work is not fatal to real success. Vouloir c'est pouvoir. — B.C. Forbes

Mais c'est renfantillage - this is childishness!' we heard de Grandin pant as we closed in and sought a chance to seize his skeleton-like antagonist. 'He who fights an imp of Satan as if he were human is a fool!'
("The Man In Crescent Terrace") — Seabury Quinn

But it is at home and not in public that one should wash ones dirty linen.
[Fr., Car c'est en famille, ce n'est pas en public, qu'un lave son linge sale.] — Napoleon Bonaparte

Ce n'est pas fini jusqu'a ce que je dis c'est fini," Rampling called out. "It's not over until I say it's over. — James Patterson

She that fails to command her thoughts will soon lose command of her actions. — John C. Maxwell

By keenly confronting the enigmas that surround us, and by considering and analyzing the observations that I had made, I ended up in the domain of mathematics. Although I am absolutely without training in the exact sciences, I often seem to have more in common with mathematicians than with my fellow artists. — M.C. Escher

There is at Christmas time a great deal of hypocrisy, honourable hypocrisy, hypocrisy undertaken pour le bon motif, c'est entendu, but nevertheless hypocrisy! — Agatha Christie

L'enfer c'est les autres.
aka, "Hell is others." . — Jean-Paul Sartre

Prayer is that which conveys a message to God, who is either known or knowing, more or less by definition. Poetry is that which conveys a message to a stranger. — G.C. Waldrep III

It is always a poor way of reading the hearts of others to try to conceal our own.
[Fr., C'est toujours un mauvais moyen de lire dans le coeur des autres que d'affecter de cacher le sien.] — Jean-Jacques Rousseau

If you asked why the post had not come, or why the boat did not sail for England, or why your coffee was cold, or why your boots were not cleaned, or why your window was shut, or why the canary didn't sing,-you would always be sure to be told, c'est la guerre! — Louise Mack

It is the beginning of the end.
[Fr., C'est le commencement de al fin.] — Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

Let's walk down the road that has no end
Steal away where only angels tread
Heaven or hell or somewhere in between
Cross your heart to take me when you leave
Don't go
Please don't go
Don't go without me — The Civil Wars

A world in which everything is fashionable is impossible to imagine, because it implies that there would be nothing to provide a contrast. The reason that when you place any two things side by side, one becomes chic and the other does not is that it's in the nature of desire to choose, and to choose absolutely. That's the mythological lesson of the great choice among the beauties: They are all beautiful - they are goddesses - and yet a man must choose. And what was the chooser's name? Paris. C'est normal. — Adam Gopnik

I remembered some of it and some of the things that fell out of my mouth, like telling him his dick was the best treat and that I'd rather have it than chocolate. I mean, c'mob, I gave his dick a better rating than chocolate - who does that? — Amelia Hutchins

Go in the direction of where your peace is coming from. — C. JoyBell C.

C'est magnifique, mais ce n'est pas la guerre (attributed to a French observer during the Charge of the Light — Thomas Pynchon

For my 2015 Book Reading Challenge resolution, the 1 (one) book I want to read is titled: "Write, you scumbag pitiable excuse for a poet" by ?, I suppose. — Rolf

I thought killing was easy for you," said Laurent. His voice was rather quiet. "I thought you did it without thinking."
"I'm a soldier," said Damen, "and I have been for a long time. I've killed on the sawdust. I've killed in battle. Is that what you mean by easy?"
"You know it isn't," said Laurent, in that same quiet voice. — C.S. Pacat

You spell Bob Hope C-L-A-S-S. — Lucille Ball

Imitators are a slavish herd and fools in my opinion.
[Fr., C'est un betail servile et sot a mon avis
Que les imitateurs.] — Jean De La Fontaine

- Qui vous a mis dans cette fichue position? - c'est le pigeon, Joseph. Patrice, home on furlough, lapped warm milk with me in the bar MacMahon. Son of the wild goose, Kevin Egan of Paris. My father's a bird, he lapped the sweet lait chaud with pink young tongue, plump bunny's face. Lap, lapin. He hopes to win in the gros lots. About the nature of women he read in Michelet. But he must send me La Vie de Jesus by M. Leo Taxil. Lent it to his friend. - C'est tordant, vous savez. Moi, je suis socialiste. Je ne crois pas en l'existence de Dieu. Faut pas le dire a mon p-re. - Il croit? - Mon pere, oui. — James Joyce

Feel like a freak. Unless le freak, c'est chic?" She shrugged. "To be fair, they only rise up whenever immortals do. — Kresley Cole

I'll learn all the katas and be the ninjing-est ninja that ever ninjed." Bubbles whined, so I bent down to rub his silky little head. "Is it the c-word, Bubbs? Don't you worry, we love the doggas as well as the katas." David laughed. — J.L. Merrow

The habit some writers indulge in of perpetual quotation is one it behooves lovers of good literature to protest against, for it is an insidious habit which in the end must cloud the stream of thought, or at least check spontaneity. If it be true that le style c'est l homme, what is likely to happen if l homme is for ever eking out his own personality with that of some other individual? — Ethel Smyth

Flaubert's famous sentence, "Madame Bovary, c'est moi" ("Madame Bovary, she is me"), in reality means, " Madame Bovary, c'est nous" ("Madame Bovary, she is us"), in our modern incapacity to live a "good-enough" life. — Sophie Barthes

Swan dive down eleven stories high
Hold your breath until you see the light
You can sink to the bottom of the sea
Just don't go without me — The Civil Wars

Une maison sans chat, c'est la vie sans soleil. (A house without a cat is like live without sunshine.) --
One of Julia Child's favorite sayings. — Therese Burson

Yet another temptation goes to the other extreme. With Sartre, it says: "L'enfer, c'est les autres!" ("Other people - that's hell!"). In that case, love itself becomes the great temptation and the great sin. Because it is an inescapable sin, it is also hell. But this too is only a disguised form of Eros - Eros in solitude. It is the love that is mortally wounded by its own incapacity to love another, and flies from others in order not to have to give itself to them. Even in its solitude this Eros is most tortured by its inescapable need of another, not for the other's sake but for its own fulfillment! — Thomas Merton

Tell him to leave me alone, Astrid. Else I'll have to barbecue him and make akri angry at me. I don't want to make akri angry. (Simi)
Simi? Is that you? (Astrid)
Yes. C'est moi. The little demon with hornays. (Simi) — Sherrilyn Kenyon

That dog is mine said those poor children; that place in the sun is mine; such is the beginning and type of usurpation throughout the earth.
[Fr., Ce chien est a moi, disaient ces pauvres enfants; c'est la ma place au soleil. Voila le commencement et l'image de l'usurpation de toute la terre.] — Blaise Pascal

Lewis Richardson wrote that his quest to analyze peace with numbers sprang from two prejudices. As a Quaker, he believed that "the moral evil in war outweighs the moral good, although the latter is conspicuous." As a scientist, he thought there was too much moralizing about war and not enough knowledge. "For indignation is so easy and satisfying a mood that it is apt to prevent one from attending to any facts that oppose it. If the reader should object that I have abandoned ethics for the false doctrine that 'tout comprendre c'est tout pardonner' [to understand all is to forgive all], I can reply that it is only a temporary suspense of ethical judgment, made because 'beaucoup condamner c'est peu comprendre' [to condemn much is to understand little]." (p. 200) — Steven Pinker

It is worse that a crime, it is a blunder.
[Fr., C'est plus qu'un crime, c'est une faute.] — Joseph Fouche

Whoever did not live in the years neighboring 1789 does not know what the pleasure of living means.
[Fr., Qui n'a pas vecu dans les annees voisines de 1789 ne sait pas ce que c'est le palisir de vivre.] — Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

Today, the only thing Hollywood swears by is space adventures because that's what goes over well. For my part, I trust my instinct and I make the films I believe in. If the public follows me, that's wonderful. If it doesn't follow, c'est la vie. — Clint Eastwood

A question.
So what are people supposed to do if they want to avoid a collision (thud!) but still lie in the field, enjoying the clouds drifting by, listening to the grass grow - not thinking, in other words? Sound hard? Not at all. Logically, it's easy. C'est simple. The answer is dreams. Dreaming on and on. Entering the world of dreams, and never coming out. Living in dreams for the rest of time.
In dreams you don't need to make any distinctions between things. Not at all. Boundaries don't exist. So in dreams there are hardly any collisions. Even if there are, they don't hurt. Reality is different. Reality bites.
Reality, reality. — Haruki Murakami

Alecto, have you noticed how downhill this little island is becoming?" Mandy questioned sadly. "All these organic food stores and yoga studios and cellular phone towers ... Cape Breton was one of the only places left where it still had that nostalgic small town atmosphere but now ... I've only been away for a year, how could things have changed so quickly? I mean, how can the world accept it?"
"C'est la vie," said Alecto, looking extremely tired as he stared out the window at the late November maple keys fluttering down from vibrantly red trees lining the streets on either side of the windshield. — Rebecca McNutt

The other day Father Prior was telling me about a French writer, Jean-Paul Sartre. An existentialist. ... One phrase of his particularly struck me: 'L'enfer c'est les autres.' Do you think he meant that as a joke?"

"I don't think humor's a strong point with existentialists."

"I think it's p-p-poppycock. How can Hell be others? God is manifested in others. God is the Other. That's why the self must lose itself in love for the other. It's the self we must leave behind. Better to say Hell is the Self. L'enfer c'est moi. — Tony Hendra

C'est moi, c'est moi,'tis I,' I told him. It seemed appropriately melodramatic, though I didn't know if he'd catch the reference. I shouldn't have worried.
Unexpectedly, he laughed. Trust you to quote Lancelot rather than Guinevere. — Patricia Briggs

Love is winning the war without starting the war. (L'amour, c'est gagner la guerre - Sans commencer la guerre) — Charles De Leusse

None of us can claim to be fair and square in love - and I'm definitely not a hypocrite! Humans are built to evolve with time. It depends on the nature of the relationship you share with a person. It is there today, tomorrow it may be gone; c'est la vie. — Randeep Hooda

I wonder if it is possible to have two boyfriends. I mean, times are changing. Relationships are more complicated. In France men always have mistresses and wives and so on. Henri probably has two girlfriends. He would laugh if you told him you just had one. He would say, 'C'est tres, tres tragique.' — Louise Rennison

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

But as you say in English, c'est la vie! — Jean Louis

Before embarking on a voyage, first speak with the ancient sailors, listen to and understand the winds, then patiently make a boat and sail. Yet, even then, be open to other dreams, changes, circumstances. Throughout our lives, we limit ourselves to fixed goals, only to get on the local ferry and just travel the distance between two known points. Yet, we create an illusion of freedom and choice, accompanied by a sense of independence. Thus, we carefully study weather reports, ride on the port side on odd numbered days, starboard on holidays, have tea at fixed times, never speak with those who wear glasses, always smile at those who wear green and of course allow ourselves just the slight possibility of a dream about jumping ship and going off to our island one day.
C'est la vie? Our predictably totalitarian lives are an insult to the human spirit. — Gunduz Vassaf

Ah, mais c'est Anglais ca," he murmured, "everything in black and white, everything clear cut and well defined. But life, it is not like that, Mademoiselle. There are things that are not yet, but which cast their shadow before. — Agatha Christie

I see is that there are many people who destroy their marriages because of one-night stands with someone else. And as the French say, "C'est ne pas grave." It's not something easy to swallow, but at the same time, it does not justify you to end a long-lasting relationship because something happened. — Paulo Coelho

One can not come back from life. — Ljupka Cvetanova

The water shines only by the sun. And it is you who are my sun. (L'eau ne brille que par le soleil. - Et c'est toi qui es mon soleil.) — Charles De Leusse

Eh, ca c'est bon. That was life. Some days you ate the rougarou. Some days the rougarou devoured you. — Sherrilyn Kenyon

Pointsman is finding it much easier to of late to slip into a l'etat c'est moi frame of mind
who else is doing anything? — Thomas Pynchon

Eating Out Alone"
The loneliness inside me is a place,
Harvard where no one might always be someone.
When we're alone people we run from change
to the mysterious and beautiful
I am eating alone at a small white table,
visible, ignored ... the moment that tries the soul,
an explorer going blind in polar whiteness.
Yet everyone who is seated is a lay,,
or Paul Claudel, at the next table declaiming:
"L'Academie Groton, eh, c'est une ecole des cochons."
He soars from murdered English to killing French,
no word unheard, no sentence understood
a vocabulary to mortify Racine ...
the minotaur steaming in a maze of eloquence — Robert Lowell

We had to be up early in the morning. We had a goat race to go to ... We asked the old man confident in the knowledge that he, like every Frenchman, would be an expert. The goats who make the most droppings before the race are likely to do well. An empty goat is faster than a full goat. C'est logique. — Peter Mayle

It's amazing, the impunity with which history gets rewritten. — C. Gockel

I don't think women are better than men, but I do think that men are worse than women. — Louis C.K.

A silence, the brief Sabbath of an hour,
Reigns o'er the fields; the laborer sits within
His dwelling; he has left his steers awhile,
Unyoked, to bite the herbage, and his dog
Sleeps stretched beside the door-stone in the shade.
Now the gray marmot, with uplifted paws,
No more sits listening by his den, but steals
Abroad, in safety, to the clover-field,
And crops its juicy-blossoms. — William C. Bryant

There is one vice of which no man in the world is free; which every one in the world loathes when he sees it in someone else; and of which hardly any people, except Christians, ever imagine that they are guilty themselves. [ ... ] There is no fault which makes a man more unpopular, and no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves.[ ... ]The vice I am talking of is Pride or Self-Conceit: and the virtue opposite to it, in Christian morals, is called Humility. — C.S. Lewis

He frowned again. Don't you like this ... being with me? Even ... just a little? — S.C. Stephens

Funny how people value eyes, when really, their colors are super limited. I doubt anyone would enjoy a new box of crayons if they came only in eye-color shades. — Courtney C. Stevens

Diamonds are held under tons and tons of pressure, extremely high temperatures of fire and shuffled under shifting of tectonic plates, for a long, long time! Yet when they come out from there and are put on display for their beauty; does anybody stop to evaluate the diamond based upon all the shit it's been through and say "Remember that disgusting hole it used to be in? I bet it was hell in there!" No, people don't remember where a diamond has come from; they just see the beauty of it now. But it wouldn't have become so beautiful, you know, if not for all of that! So why should we look at other people, or at ourselves and evaluate them/ourselves based upon their/our pasts? Shouldn't we forget that? And only see the beauty that is in front of our eyes? Whatever it was, it made you beautiful! And that is what matters! — C. JoyBell C.

Do not glory in your own faith, your own feelings, your own knowledge, or your own diligence. Glory in nothing but Christ. — J.C. Ryle

Of all the questions about the future of leadership that we can raise for ourselves, we can be certain in our answer to only one: 'Who will lead us?' The answer, of course, is that we will be lead by those we have taught, and they will lead us as we have shown them they should. — William C. Richardson

I read in a periodical the other day that the fundamental thing is how we think of God. By God Himself, it is not! How God thinks of us is not only more important, but infinitely more important. — C.S. Lewis

No matter how widely you have travelled, you haven't seen the world if you have failed to look into the human hearts that inhabit it. — Donald C. Peattie

Finally I looked to the cold, white sky and prayed to a God I wasn't sure I believed in to heal the girl I loved. — C. Desir

Well, c'mon, everyone is a Facebook addict! — Carlos Pena Jr.

It's one thing to make a choice. It's another to put that choice into practice. — John C. Maxwell

The One who knows the fullness of my sin loves me as my Father right now. — R.C. Sproul Jr.

Most Christians seem to have two kinds of lives, their so-called real life and their so-called religious one. Not (C. S.) Lewis. The barrier so many of us find between the visible and the invisible world was just not there for him. It had become natural for Lewis to live ordinary life in a supernatural way. — Walter Hooper

I hadn't known you could hear someone's voice so clearly in the silent moments. — Brittainy C. Cherry

The great thing to remember is that though our feelings come and go God's love for us does not. — C.S. Lewis

It is not your business to succeed, but to do right. When you have done so the rest lies with god. — C.S. Lewis

Courage, Brave Heart — C.S. Lewis

There are types of people who want to have leverage over other people's lives. For no other reason than they feel the need to have leverage. I find this to be a certain type of sickness of the mind. You could argue that they wish you no harm, however, the desire to simply have leverage over another - whether this is mental, emotional or physical - is, I think, a sickness of the mind. I can honestly say right now that I, 100%, have no manipulative intentions to gain leverage over any other person that I know. — C. JoyBell C.

Leadership is the dream made reality. — John C. Maxwell

Crying is all right in its way while it lasts. But you have to stop sooner or later, and then you still have to decide what to do. — C.S. Lewis

Read and Re-Read
Re-reading, we always find a new book. — C.S. Lewis

Although he thinks he's awesome at them, Andrew really sucks at languages. Once, he tried to speak French to this woman who owned the C'est La Vie bakery back home, and she gave him a cookie because she thought he was mentally challenged. (Page 21) — Alicia Thompson

I don't like heavy baggage." The driver laughed. "Who does? But before you know it, you're surrounded by it. That's life. C'est la vie." And again, he laughed happily. — Haruki Murakami

I am the State.
[Fr., L'etat c'est moi.] — Louis XIV

I pray because I can't help myself ... — C.S. Lewis

I have discovered, passionate grief does not link us with the dead but cuts us off from them. This becomes clearer and clearer. It is just at those moments when I feel least sorrow - getting into my morning bath is usually one of them - that H. rushes upon my mind in her full reality, her otherness. Not, as in my worst moments, all foreshortened and patheticized and solemnized by my miseries, but as she is in her own right. This is good and tonic. — C.S. Lewis

The dream is free ... but the journey will cost you something. — John C. Maxwell

We all see what we want to see. That's the miracle of reading. The way it stimulates the human mind to create its own story. — C.A. Pack

I'd done it. I'd successfully pushed away two wonderful men. My desire to hurt neither of them, ended up hurting them both — S.C. Stephens

A rich man is nothing but a poor man with money — W.C. Fields

If I knocked and waited at every door, who knows what I might miss? — C.J. Sansom

I remember when I was younger, there was a well-known writer who used to dart down the back way whenever saw me coming. I suppose he was in love with me and wasn't quite sure of himself. Well, c'est la vie! — Robert E. Sherwood

You know, I'm terribly pleased to hear you're barking and snarling when you think some tramp is sending you sexy little surprises," she teased. "But since I'm the tramp...can you maybe come in the room?"
-Alexis to her husband — J.C. Daniels

Many things in life are like good coffee, they need time to percolate. — H.M.C.

In the world we live in, one fool makes many fools, but one sage only a few sages. — Georg C. Lichtenberg

Do not seek for information of which you cannot make use. — Anna C. Brackett

Shafts of delicious sunlight struck down onto the forest floor and overhead you could see a blue sky between the tree tops. — C.S. Lewis

The man who has won millions at the cost of his conscience is a failure. — B.C. Forbes

Programming is the art of doing one thing at a time — Michael C. Feathers

It is not settled happiness but momentary joy that glorifies the past. — C.S. Lewis

CG Jung:Thoughts grow in me like a forest, populated by many different animals. But man is domineering in his thinking, and therefore he kills the pleasure of the forest and that of the wild animals. Man is violent in his desire, and he himself becomes a darker forest and a sickened forest animal. Just as I have freedom in the world, I also have freedom in my thoughts. Freedom is conditional. — C. G. Jung

He had also jinxed my telescope so that every time I looked at Mars, Marvin the Martian popped up and threatened to destroy the Earth with an explosive space-modulator. — Jim C. Hines