French Peasantry Quotes & Sayings

If an aristocrat became bankrupt he looked to the sunshine of royal providence [ ... ] but when the nobility sank too low to qualify for royal notice, they became fraudsters, trading on the display of rank: the man would become a card-sharper or gigolo, while the woman sold herself. Actual work would have been unthinkable. It would have offended against the ancient order of things, which assigned that role to the middle classes and the peasantry. This concept is difficult to connect with our modern view of the world, but its very absurdity follows directly from the fact that everything in its old order was so firm and wonderful - with everything in its eternally appointed place and moving in fixed circles like the stars. There was no changing your lot in life at will: it was assigned to you forever, by birth. If you fell below your appointed station, you couldn't just swap it for another - you simply plummeted into the void. — Antal Szerb

It is true that from time to time Jews suffered from the fury of an exploited peasantry or their competitors. But from time to time the aristocracy suffered the same fate. Thousands of French aristocrats were slaughtered during peasant uprisings or at the Great Terror of 1793. Many Russian aristocrats were killed or expelled during the October Revolution of 1917. Many of them were innocent, for class warfare can be as cruel as any war. — Israel Shamir

I have a much better relationship with the press than I did, I think because I stood my ground. — Elton John

To-night the swinging stars shall plumb
The silence of the sky. — Stella Benson

The peasantry had only recently been freed from slavelike servitude, and they were crushed with debt. The economy was stagnant. The country was hardly industrialized; there were not many factories. Though in St. Petersburg itself, nobles and sophisticates attended balls in Parisian gowns and discussed the poetry of the French, this ramshackle empire also included huge, frigid wastes of fir tree and tundra, deserts where the only inhabitants were nomadic families with their herds, and mountain towns that had never even heard the name of their distant ruler. — M T Anderson

Jean-Louis had never had a day's illness in his life. He was tall and as gnarled as an oak. The sun had baked his skin until it had the colour and toughness and stillness of a tree. With advancing years, he had lost his tongue. He now never spoke, considering such an activity pointless. — Emile Zola

Come in. Sit anywhere but on the bed. Don't look cute, don't get undressed, and don't touch my underwear. — Christina Lauren

There is no shame to not love your own flesh and blood. As I have discovered, the people I value most in the world do not share mine. — Gemma Liviero

I would love nothing more than to marry you and live with you here in New York." "You will not miss England?" "There is nothing for me there," she said. "You have stolen my heart completely, Mr. Beckett, and I believe it is now yours forever. — Jen Turano

Awards shows are my greatest inducement to get back into shape. — Jane Kaczmarek

Until I get the keys to the Kingdom, Lord, I ain't giving up. — Robert Hicks