L'esprit De L'escalier Quotes & Sayings

Let me leave you with a positive thought. William Shakespeare once wrote: "The more I give to thee, the more I have, for both are infinite." They call this the Hidden Economy and it is not based on greed or love of money, but on unconditional, selfless, boundless and unstinting Love. — Etienne De L'Amour

Reserve delicacy of sentiment for friendship; accept love for what it is.... The more dignity you give it, the more dangerous you make it. — Ninon De L'Enclos

A man is given the choice between loving women and understanding them. — Ninon De L'Enclos

Consider this: when you stand at the entry to a steel factory, you can make out through the smoke some men, some metal, the fires. The furnaces roar, the hammers crash; and the metalworkers who forge ingots, weapons, tools, and so on are completely ignorant of the real uses to which their products will be put. The workers can only refer to their products by conventional names. Well, that's where we all stand, all of us! Nobody can see the real character of what he creates because every knife blade may become a dagger, and the use to which an object is put changes both its name and its nature. Only our ignorance shields us from terrible responsibilities. — Villiers De L'Isle-Adam

[L]ife is a phenomenon in need of criticism, for we are, as fallen creatures, in permanent danger of worshipping false gods, of failing to understand ourselves and misinterpreting the behaviour of others, of growing unproductively anxious or desirous, and of losing ourselves to vanity and error. Surreptitiously and beguilingly, then, with humour or gravity, works of art
novels, poems, plays, paintings or films
can function as vehicles to explain our condition to us. They may act as guides to a truer, more judicious, more intelligent understanding of the world. — Alain De Botton

Careful as they may be, developers of Eiffel libraries will always run into cases in which, after releasing a library class, they suddenly experience what in French is called esprit de l'escalier or wit of the staircase: a great thought which unfortunately is an afterthought, like a clever reply that would have stunned all the other dinner guests - if only you had thought of it before walking down the stairs after the party is over. — Bertrand Meyer

Or have you simply been enjoying that North African river cruise?"
"You what?"
"In de-Nile? — J.L. Merrow

Old age is women's hell. — Ninon De L'Enclos

As Christian mystic Pierre Teilhard de Chardin once said: "We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience." He was right. If we recognize the soul lesson, we can grow beyond suffering, and there is no stress in this state of understanding. — Brian L. Weiss

All were indiscriminately condemned to death; but one out of three only were really executed. Ten cannon were placed on the drilling-ground, a prisoner fastened to each of their mouths, and five times were the ten guns fired, covering the plain with mutilated remains, in the midst of air tainted with the smell of burning flesh. These men, as M. de Valbezen says in his book called "Nouvelles Etudes sur les Anglais et l'lnde," nearly all died with that heroic indifference which Indians know so well how to preserve even in the very face of death. "No need to bind me, captain," said a fine young sepoy, twenty years of age, to one of the officers present at the execution; and as he spoke he carelessly stroked the instrument of death. "No need to bind me; I have no wish to run away." Such was the first and horrible execution, which was to be followed by so many others. At — Jules Verne

The more sins you confess, the more books you will sell. — Ninon De L'Enclos

When we hear the bird sing, it hears only how to love. (Quand on entend l'oiseau chanter, - Lui n'entend que comment aimer.) — Charles De Leusse

L'homme qui a un peu use ses e motions est plus presse de plaire que d'aimer. The person who has used his emotions even a little is more anxious to please than to love. — Sydney Samuelson

Il n'y a pas d'autre univers qu'un univers humain, l'univers de la subjectivite humaine. There is no other universe except the human universe, the universe of human subjectivity. — Jean-Paul Sartre

I believe strongly that philosophy has nothing to do with specialists. — Gilles Deleuze

Actors ought to be larger than life. You come across quite enough ordinary, nondescript people in daily life and I don't see why you should be subjected to them on the stage too. — Ninon De L'Enclos

When our desires are fulfilled, we never fail to realize the wealth of imagination and the paucity of reality. — Ninon De L'Enclos

Good morning," said the flower.
"Where are the men?" the little prince asked, politely. The flower had once seen a caravan passing.
"Men?" she echoed. "I think there are six or seven of them in existence. I saw them, several years ago. But one never knows where to find them. The wind blows them away. They have no roots, and that makes their life very difficult."
"Goodbye," said the little prince. "Goodbye," said the flower. — Antoine De Saint-Exupery

You don't like the Goths?"
"No! Not with the persecution we have to put up with!"
"Persecution?"
"Religious persecution. We won't stand for it forever."
"I thought the Goths let everybody worship as they pleased."
"That's just it! We Orthodox are forced to stand around and watch Arians and Monophysites and Nestorians and Jews going about their business unmolested, as if they owned the country. If that isn't persecution, I'd like to know what is! — L. Sprague De Camp

Shall I tell you what makes love so dangerous? 'Tis the too high idea we are apt to form of it. — Ninon De L'Enclos

A cunning woman is her own mistress because she confides in no one. She who deceives others anticipates deceit, and guards herself. — Ninon De L'Enclos

There is always a moment in the pyramid of our lives when the apex is reached. — Ninon De L'Enclos

For although we may fully respect our social conventions ... it may unfortunately happen that , through the perversity of others we encounter only the thorns of life, whilst the wicked gather nothing but roses.
will it not be said that virtue, however fair she may be, becomes the worst cause one can espouse ... when she has grown so weak that she cannot struggle against vice?
- La Nouvelle Justine ou les Malheurs de la vertu, suivie de l'histoire de Juliette — Marquis De Sade

Don't just stand there and nod. The mind observes and cogitates, the heart engages, and I would encourage you to engage with the process. — Etienne De L'Amour

The difference between theory and practice is larger in practice than the difference between theory and practice in theory. — Jan L.A. Van De Snepscheut

I give you five minutes to spare your blushes. here is the little bronze key that opens the ebony caskets on the mantle piece in the Louise-Phillipe room. In one of the caskets you will find a scorpion, in the other, a grasshopper, both very cleverly imitated in Japanese bronze: they will say yes or no for you. If you turn the scorpion round, that will mean to me, when I return that you have said yes. The grasshopper will mean no ... The grasshopper, be careful of the grass hopper! A grasshopper does not only turn: it hops! It hops! And it hops jolly high! — Gaston Leroux

I am often tongue-tied with strangers and have what the philosopher Monsieur Diderot calls l'esprit de l'escalier, staircase wit: only long after a remark is made to me will my imagination supply the thing I should have said in reply. — Debra Dean

The beginning and the end of love are both marked by embarrassment when the two find themselves alone.
[Fr., Le commencement et le declin de l'amour se font sentir par l'embarras ou l'on est de se trouver seuls.] — Jean De La Bruyere

I am a man who knows nothing, guesses sometimes, finds frequently and who's always amazed. — Villiers De L'Isle-Adam

Jack wasn't worried. Wherever Mirie was stuck, she had probably taken over and was ruling as the de facto empress. — C.L. Bevill

My own self-consciousness cries out to me coldly: how does one love zero? — Villiers De L'Isle-Adam

There is no mistaking the dismay on the face of a writer who has just heard that his brain child is a deformed idiot. — L. Sprague De Camp

Inconstancy is the child of satiety. — Ninon De L'Enclos

Rail longer than train cars ; and the hope than our reasons. (Rail plus long que les wagons ; - Et l'espoir que nos raisons.) — Charles De Leusse

Memory is ever active, ever true. Alas, if it were only as easy to forget! — Ninon De L'Enclos

The silverware shines if the sun. (L'argenterie brille - Si le soleil. — Charles De Leusse

Feminine virtue is nothing but a convenient masculine invention. — Ninon De L'Enclos

I see film roles as lovely presents that come along now and again. I feel really lucky and say thank you very much. And if they fly me to L.A., I think, 'God, I must really be doing well.' I've worked with De Niro and Brando and Pacino, and that's made me feel very lucky. But the films have never meant a lot to me. — Michael Gambon

Art is not communicative, art is not reflexive. Art, science, philosophy are neither contemplative, neither reflexive, nor communicative. They are creative, that's all. — Gilles Deleuze

Your love is my treasure And my heart is buried there. Your touch is my pleasure Soothing my soul with every care. Subject of my poetry, Love of my youth, Melody to my songs Of joy absolute, Would you believe me? I speak the truth When in poem and song I say to you, That when violets turn red And roses bloom blue That's the day I'll stop loving you. — Warren L.G De Mills

But suppose one doesn't quite know which one wants to put first. Suppose," said Harriet, falling back on words which were not her own, "suppose one is cursed with both a heart and a brain?"
"You can usually tell," said Miss de Vine, "by seeing what kind of mistakes you make. I'm quite sure that one never makes fundamental mistakes about the thing one really wants to do. Fundamental mistakes arise out of lack of genuine interest. In my opinion, that is. — Dorothy L. Sayers

A sensible woman should be guided by her head when taking a husband, and by her heart when taking a lover. — Ninon De L'Enclos

Hatred is nearly always honest
rarely, if ever, assumed. So much cannot be said for love. — Ninon De L'Enclos

In theory, there's no difference between theory & practice, but in practice there is. — Jan L.A. Van De Snepscheut

One learned to take time to savor life, much as one took time to savor a good meal or glass of wine. The French called it "l'entente de la vie," the harmony of life. — David McCullough

Even though I'd been terrified and in pain, I'd thought he was handsome. Except that wasn't even a strong enough word: he was beautiful in a way that was almost painful. Flawless in a way that seemed surreal, like a figment of imagination. So perfect, it was off-putting, because while it was something that could be worshipped, it wasn't something that could be touched or loved. He'd been snide, nasty, and wicked, and I'd loathed him. Except even then I'd sensed something wasn't right, that there was a mismatch between what I was seeing and hearing and what I felt. It was this mismatch that made him captivating, and even as I was grasping for ways to escape, the need to know more about him had lurked in my heart. — Danielle L. Jensen

The qualities we have do not make us so ridiculous as those which we affect to have.
[Fr., On n'est jamais si ridicule par les qualites que l'on a que par celles que l'on affecte d'avoir.] — Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Nothing could assuage the secular grief that was your heritage. — Aldous Huxley

Brunettes are full of electricity. — Villiers De L'Isle-Adam

...unfortunately, I am incapable of thinking up perfectly biting, split-second retorts, in any language. The French even have a word for this: l'esprit de l'escalier; staircase wit, something you only think of on the way out. — Tania Aebi

Live? Our servants will do that for us.. — Villiers De L'Isle-Adam

She told me the French expression [Esprit de l'escalier] - the spirit of the staircase - for the voice that catches up with you, minutes after the fact, to make fun of whatever you said and come up with the perfect answer you didn't think of. We even had our own code phrase: SOS, we called it. — Francine Prose

There is a certain time of life, when we value a good stomach more than the mind ... — Ninon De L'Enclos

[L]ike a kingfisher I have made my nest on the waves. — Francois-Rene De Chateaubriand

Don't make a career out of underestimating me." - Claire de Haven — James Ellroy

The same principle leads us to neglect a man of merit that induces us to admire a fool.
[Fr., Du meme fonds dont on neglige un homme de merite l'on sait encore admirer un sot.] — Jean De La Bruyere

I think that nudity is beautiful. Sometimes it can be awful, but when it's beautiful? Cinema is the art about reality; it's art from reality. In French we say l'art de la realite. You show reality, so you have to show bodies. — Lea Seydoux

I have come with this message: since our gods and our aspirations are no longer anything but scientific, why shouldn't our loves be so too? — Villiers De L'Isle-Adam

[L]et us work to rid ourselves of our attacks of over-zealousness especially when it offends against respect, esteem, and charity. — Vincent De Paul

L'univers?je l'en estime plus depuis que je sais qu'il ressemble a' une montre; il est surprenant que l'ordre de la nature, tout admirable qu'il est, ne roule que sur des choses si simples. I have come to esteem the universe more now that I know it resembles a watch; it is surprising that the order of nature, as admirable as it is, only runs on such simple things. — Bernard Le Bovier De Fontenelle

Everyone can get the gold of the Sun. (Tout le monde cueille - L'or du soleil) — Charles De Leusse

Some brewers of Ale and Beere doe put it into their drinke to make it more heady, fit to please drunkards, who thereby, according to their several dispositions, become either dead drunke, or foolish drunke, or madde drunke. — Matthias De L'Obel

I went to L'Academie de Cuisine in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and I think French cooking is the basis for a lot of classical cuisine, a foundation of a lot of other cuisines. That said, it's not the only way to approach a cooking career. — Carla Hall

Demetrius the grammarian finding in the temple of Delphos a knot of philosophers set chatting together, said to them, "Either I am much deceived,
or by your cheerful and pleasant countenances, you are engaged in no very deep discourse." To which one of them, Heracleon the Megarean, replied: " 'Tis for such as are puzzled about inquiring whether the future tense of the verb Ballo be spelt with a
double L, or that hunt after the derivation of the comparatives Cheirou and Beltiou, and the superlatives Cheiriotou and Beliotou, to knit their brows whilst discoursing of their science; but as to philosophical discourses, they always divert and cheer up those that entertain them, and never deject them or make them sad. — Michel De Montaigne

Dieu est le point tangent de ze ro et de l'infini. God is the tangential point of zero and the infinite. — Alfred Jarry

Firmness is great; persistency is greater. — Ninon De L'Enclos

Today a new sun rises for me; everything lives, everything is animated, everything seems to speak to me of my passion, everything invites me to cherish it. — Ninon De L'Enclos

Old age is a woman's hell. — Ninon De L'Enclos

And as they walked along he sang "Tol-de-ri-de-oh!" at every step, he felt so gay. — L. Frank Baum

[L]et us believe that all is going along the best in the world when we take no satisfaction in it, provided we humble ourselves for this and redouble our confidence in God. — Vincent De Paul

Les amis de l'abc... a group which barely missed becoming historic — Victor Hugo

Who underestimates is buried in the optimism of the deads. (Qui sous-estime s'enterre - Dans l'optimisme des morts.) — Charles De Leusse

The story of civilization is, in a sense, the story of engineering - that long and arduous struggle to make the forces of nature work for man's good. — L. Sprague De Camp

The hidden economy [is] fed not by money and greed but by love, pure and simple. You see the best and truly golden opportunities do not arise to benefit oneself, but in order to benefit others. — Etienne De L'Amour

Being around you was the sweetest torture. I wanted to touch you, hold you, kiss you. I wanted all of you." His shoulders slumped. "But I was afraid of what would happen if I gave in my desire. If I let myself love you. — Danielle L. Jensen

Lord Hawksheart said we should stay together," she reminded him. ' Do not leave your mate's side,' he said. 'You hold each other to the Light,' he said. And he said we could only defeat the Darkness together."
"He said many things. Most of which I don't trust."
The safest place for me is at your side. Whatever happens, we face it together."
His eyes closed and he nodded. "Doreh Shabeila de." So shall it be. — C.L. Wilson

A woman should not take a lover without the consent of her heart, nor a husband without the consent of her reason. — Ninon De L'Enclos

Plonger au fond du gouffre, Enfer ou Ciel, qu'importe? / Au fond de l'Inconnu pour trouver du NOUVEAU! (rough translation : Into the abyss
Heaven or Hell, what difference does it make? / To the depths of the Unknown to find the NEW!) — Charles Baudelaire

Men lose more conquests by their own awkwardness than by any virtue in the woman. — Ninon De L'Enclos

Esprit de l'escalier: spirit of the staircase, wishing you'd said, wishing you'd done. Yet how much more indelible it was when the staircase was the staircase that led to the bedroom. — Martin Amis

Finally, after a glance at Notre Dame and a brisk trot through the Louvre, we sat down at a cafe on the Place de l'Opera and watched the people. They were amazing
never had we seen such costumes, such make-up, such wigs; and, strangest of all, the wearers didn't seem in the least conscious of how funny they looked. Many of them even stared at us and smiled, as though we had been the oddities, and not they. Mr. Holmes no doubt found it amusing to see the pageant of prostitution, poverty and fashion reflected in our callow faces and wide-open eyes. — Christopher Isherwood

Nature was quick to pass the sponge of her deluges over these awkward sketches (dinosaurs), these first nightmares of Life. — Villiers De L'Isle-Adam

The less heart, the more comfort. — Ninon De L'Enclos

A French friend brought over a load of Gainsbourg vinyl and I worked my way through it: by the time I got to L'Histoire De Melody Nelson (1969) I was thinking, 'How can this man have died before I got to know his music?' I was a convert. — Sylvie Simmons

The town of L - represented the earth, with its sorrows and its graves left behind, yet not out of sight, nor wholly forgotten. The ocean, in everlasting but gentle agitation, and brooded over by a dove-like calm, might not unfitly typify the mind and the mood which then swayed it. For it seemed to me as if then first I stood at a distance, and aloof from the uproar of life; as if the tumult, the fever, and the strife, were suspended; a respite granted from the secret burthens of the heart; a sabbath of repose; a resting from human labours. Here were the hopes which blossom in the paths of life, reconciled with the peace which is in the grave; motions of the intellect as unwearied as the heavens, yet for all anxieties a halcyon calm: a tranquility that seemed no product of inertia, but as if resulting from mighty and equal antagonisms; infinite activities, infinite repose. — Thomas De Quincey

A leftist government doesn't exist because being on the left has nothing to do with governments. — Gilles Deleuze

And far away in goddamn L.A. or Madison Avenue is the prick who decided that Skittles would sell more quickly if they promised Jalens they would taste the fucking rainbow which is like a complete fucking impossibility and even if it wasn't who said a rainbow would even taste good you know? — Sergio De La Pava

The joy of the mind is the measure of its strength. — Ninon De L'Enclos

Love without desire is a delusion: it does not exist in nature. — Ninon De L'Enclos

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

It will be most pleasing to O[ur] L[ord] if you husband your strength in order to serve Him better. — Vincent De Paul

I have no admiration for culture. I have no reserve knowledge, no provisional knowledge. And everything that I learn, I learn for a particular task, and once it's done, I immediately forget it, so that if ten years later, I have to get involved with something close to or directly within the same subject, I would have to start again from zero, with some few exceptions. — Gilles Deleuze

And when we wr i t e he r life hi s tory, we f ind tha t we know nothing about the f i r s t s even ye a r s of he r life, but the de eds of he r l a t e r chi ldhood a r e to be s e en in the old rocks .( — Anonymous

The passions do not die out; they burn out. — Ninon De L'Enclos

After the age of eighty, all contemporaries are friends. — Ninon De L'Enclos

Let her destroy me if she will. Better to be destroyed by her love than to never have known it. Erik

Book 2~Chanson de l'Ange: The Angel's Song — Paisley Swan Stewart

If our Gods and our hopes are nothing but scientific phenomena, then let us admit it must be said that our love is scientific as well. — Auguste De Villiers De L'Isle-Adam

The best one can hope for is a government favorable to certain claims and demands from the Left. — Gilles Deleuze

Force and not opinion is the queen of the world; but it is opinion that uses the force.
[Fr., La force est la reine du monde, et non pas l'opinion; mais l'opinion est celle qui use de la force.] — Blaise Pascal

Never tell a loved one of an infidelity: you would be badly rewarded for your troubles. Although one dislikes being deceived, one likes even less to be undeceived. — Ninon De L'Enclos