Vautrin Quotes & Sayings

What is most frightening about Vautrin's lecture is that his brisk portrait of Restoration society contains such precise figures. As I will soon show, the structure of the income and wealth hierarchies in nineteenth-century France was such that the standard of living the wealthiest French people could attain greatly exceeded that to which one could aspire on the basis of income from labor alone. Under such conditions, why work? And why behave morally at all? Since social inequality was in itself immoral and unjustified, why not be thoroughly immoral and appropriate capital by whatever means are available? The — Thomas Piketty

Strength was the virtue of paganism; obedience is the virtue of Christianity. — David Hare

I went to a high school that didn't have many people in it. There were, like, 60 people in my senior class. There was a group of cool kids and a group of really dorky kids, and I was probably the coolest of the really dorky kids. — Matthew Perry

Some people use the sexual energy particularly during intercourse to take personal power from each other. — Frederick Lenz

How did you get back?' asked Vautrin.
'I walked,' replied Eugene.
'I wouldn't like half-pleasures, myself,' observed the tempter. 'I'd want to go there in my own carriage, have my own box, and come back in comfort. All or nothing, that's my motto.'
'And a very good one,' said Madame Vauquer. — Honore De Balzac

Was there ever such thing as great Shakespeare? Only one must not say so! But what think you - what - was there not sad stuff? — George III

Kuwait is the origin which our roots extend in it's base. The fort that we seek for shelter and stick to after God Almighty. Kuwait is the entity that maintains our presence that's united in it's features and divisions. — Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah

Adam had once told Gansey, Rags to riches isn't a story anyone wants to hear until after it's done. — Maggie Stiefvater

Humankind's greatest gift is that we are indeterminate beings. Unlike the tough and leathery seed of an acorn, which will grow into a magnificent oak tree, none of us has a predetermined final configuration of our ultimate essence. Our mental temperament is pliable. We make conscious and subconscious choices that govern who we become. — Kilroy J. Oldster

So I decided a little waltzing would be very good, and it was. I plan to do all my waltzing here in the study. I have thought I might have a book ready at hand to clutch if I began to experience unusual pain, so that would have been a special recommendation from being found in my hands. That seems theatrical, on consideration, and it might have the perverse effective of burdening the book with unpleasant associations. The ones I considered, by the way, were Donne and Herbert and Barth's Epistle to the Romans and Volume II of Calvin's institutes. Which is by no means to slight volume I. — Marilynne Robinson

If we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity.
[Commencement Address at American University, June 10 1963] — John F. Kennedy

The profit we possess after study is to have become better and wiser. — Michel De Montaigne

Rosie: I don't know what you're talking about! I am not waiting for Alex!
Ruby: Yes you are, my dear friend. He must be some man because nobody can ever measure up to him. And I know that's what you do every time you meet someone: compare. I'm sure he's a fabulous friend and I'm sure he always says sweet and wonderful thing to you. But he's not here. He's thousands of miles away, working as a doctor in a great big hospital and he lives in a fancy apartment with his fancy doctor fiancee. I don't think he's thinking of leaving that life anytime soon to come back to a single mother who's living in a tiny flat working in a crappy part-time job in a paperclip factory with a crazy friend who emails her every second. So stop waiting and move on. Live your life. — Cecelia Ahern

I read mostly historical fiction - lots of stuff set in ancient Rome and ancient Greece. I also liked sci-fi and fantasy: David Gemmell, Raymond E. Feist. It's a nice escape from the world. As much as I do love real-life stories, they can often make you hurt in a way I'd rather not hurt. — Henry Cavill

What an immense mass of evil must result ... from allowing men to assume the right of anticipating what may happen. — Leo Tolstoy

The opportunity to write for the 'L.A. Weekly' has been one of the better breaks that has come my way in a long time. — Henry Rollins