Henryk Sienkiewicz

“ Both gods awaited with beating hearts his decision.
"Hermes," said Zeus, "you may cheat the people as much as you like—the people like to be cheated. But leave the gods alone, for if I become angry I will throw you into the ether, then you will sink so deep into the depths of the ocean that even my brother Poseidon will not be able to dig you out with his trident."
Divine fear seized Hermes by his smooth knees; Zeus spoke further, with stronger voice:
"A virtuous woman, especially if she loves another man, can resist
Apollo. But surely and always a stupid woman will resist him. ”

“ I smell here the petticoat of the princess. Behind the member of parliament is Jozwowicz, just as behind the evening dress there is the morning gown. What a strong perfume!
Doctor.—You may sell your perspicacity at another market. It is my personal affair.
Anton.—Not at all, for it means that you put only half your soul into public affairs. To the deuce with such business! Look at me. They howl at me in the newspapers, they laugh at me—but I do not care. I will tell you more! I feel that I shall never rise, although I am not lacking in strength nor intelligence. ”

“ Among those searching in darkness, wandering and weary ones, one remained quiet, sure of himself and his doctrine, immovable and almost serious in his pessimism. It was Emile Zola. A great talent, slow but powerful and a potent force, surprising objectivism if the question is about a sentiment, because it is equal to almost complete indifference, such an exceptional gift of seeing the entire soul of humanity and things that it approaches this naturalistic writer to mystics—all that gives him a very great and unusual originality. ”

“ With the arms which nature has given me. When you step on a worm you must not take it amiss if the worm bites you; he cannot defend himself otherwise. It is the law of nature. I placed everything on one card, and I won—or rather it is not I, but intelligence which has conquered. This force—the new times—have conquered the old centuries. And you take that amiss? What do you want? I am faithful, to the principle. You are retreating. I am not! That woman is necessary for my happiness because I love her. ”

“ Jadwiga.—No, no. We could be happy and we are not. It is the fault of both. How dreadful to think that we separated on account of almost nothing—on account of one thoughtless word—and we separated forever (she covers her face with her hands) , without hope.
Leon.—That word was nothing for you, but I remember it still with brain and heart. I was not then what I am to-day. I was poor, unknown, and you were my whole future, my aim, my riches.
Jadwiga.—Oh, Mr. Leon, Mr. Leon, what a golden dream it was! ”

“ Behold! In the Ambrosian night the gold spear standing on the Acropolis of Athens trembled, and the marble head of the gigantic statue turned toward the Acropolis in order to hear better.... Heaven and earth listened to it; the sea stopped roaring and lay peacefully near the shores; even pale Selene stopped her night wandering in the sky and stood motionless over Athens."
"And when Apollo had finished, a light wind arose and carried the song through the whole of Greece, and wherever a child in the cradle heard only a tone of it, that child grew into a poet." ”

“ Drahomir.—For lack of friendship for me.
Stella.—I was the first to appeal for friendship—in what respect am
I untrue to it?
Drahomir.—Because you share with me your joys, sports, laughter, but when a moment of sorrow comes, you keep those thorns for yourself. Pray share with me your troubles also.
Stella.—It is not egotism on my part. I do not wish to disturb your serenity.
Drahomir.—The source of my serenity does not lie in egotism either. George told me of you when I came here: "I know only how to look at her and how to pray to her; you are younger and more mirthful, try to amuse her." ”

“ Every book is a deed—bad or good, but at any rate accomplished—and a series of them, written with a special aim, is an accomplished purpose of life; it is a feast during which the workers have the right to receive a wreath, and to sing: "We bring the crop, the crop!"
Evidently the merit depends on the result of the work. The profession of the writer has its thorns about which the reader does not dream. A farmer, bringing the crop to his barn, has this absolute surety, that he brings wheat, rye, barley, or oats which will be useful to the people. ”

“ Stella.—Because sometimes we cannot understand each other. There are two kinds of love—one is strong as the rocks, and the other is like a brook in which one can see one's self. When I look at George's love, I see its might, but my soul is not reflected in it like a face in a limpid brook. I love him, it is true, but sometimes it seems to me that I could love still more—that all my heart is not in that love, and then I am unhappy. ”

“ Weariness? Grief? Emptiness? In life even a man must lean on something, and I, a feeble woman, I am like a boat without a helm, without oar and without light toward which to sail. And the heart longs for happiness. You must understand that a woman must be loved and must love some one in the world, and if she lacks true love she seizes the first pretext of it—the first shadow.
Leon (with animation) .—Poor thing.
Jadwiga.—Do not smile in that ironical way. Be better, be less severe with me. I do not even have any one to complain, and that is why I do not drive away Count Skorzewski. ”

“ I consider Zola's talent as a national misfortune, and I am glad that his times are passing away, that even the most zealous pupils abandon the master who stands alone more and more.
Will humanity remember him in literature? Will his fame pass? We cannot affirm, but we can doubt! In the cycle of Rougon-Macquart there are powerful volumes, as "Germinal" or "La Débâcle." But in general, that which Zola's natural talent made for his immortality was spoiled by a liking for dirty realism and his filthy language. Literature cannot use such expressions of which even peasants are ashamed. ”

“ Why should they not go together? I do not give up our ideas, but I do not care for our friendship because the man who says he loves humanity, and then pounds the people threateningly on their heads—that man is a liar; do you understand me?
Doctor.—I shall not insist upon your giving me back your friendship, but you must listen to me for the last time. If there shall begin for me an epoch of calamity, it will begin at the moment when such people as you begin to desert me. The man who was killed was in my way to happiness—he took everything from me. ”

“ It seems to us that in "Quo Vadis" Sienkiewicz strained all his forces to reproduce from one side all the power, all riches, all refinement, all corruption of the Roman civilization in order to get a better contrast with the great advantages of the cry of the living faith: Pro Christo! In that cry the asphyxiated not only in old times but in our days also find refreshment; the tormented by doubt, peace. From that cry flows hope, and naturally people prefer those from whom the blessing comes to those who curse and doom them. ”

“ Doctor.—But health requires one to be merry—to enjoy life.
Stella.—I do not wish for any other distraction.
Doctor.—If not distraction, at least enjoyment. We here are too grave for you. Perhaps we cannot understand you.
Stella.—You are all too good.
Doctor.—At least solicitous. If you have a moment to spare let us be seated and have a talk. My solicitude must explain my boldness. With the dignity of a fiancé, serenity and happiness generally go hand in hand. When the heart is given willingly, all longing ceases and the future is viewed with serenity. ”

“ Do you wish to become a member of parliament for us, or for the princess? That is my business.
Doctor.—I throw my cards on the table. I, you, we are all new people, and all of us have this quality—we are not dolls, painted with the same color. There is room in us for convictions, love, hatred—in a word, as I told you, for everything of which a man of complex nature is composed. Nature has given me a heart and the right to live, therefore I desire for happiness ”

“ Once, being sent on an errand by Zeus—I don't remember what errand—I was playing just over your Trinachija, and I perceived Lampecja, who, together with Featusa, watches your herds there. Since that time I have no peace. The thought about her is never absent from my mind. I love her and I sigh for her day and night. If I win, if in Athens there can be found a virtuous woman, strong enough to resist you, you shall give me Lampecja—I wish for nothing more."
The Silver-arrowed god began to shake his head.
"It's astonishing that love can nestle in the heart of a merchants-patron. ”

“ Sienkiewicz considers the Christian faith as the principal and even the only help which humanity needs to bear cheerfully the burden and struggle of every-day life. Equally his personal experience as well as his studies made him worship Christ. He is not one of those who say that religion is good for the people at large. He does not admit such a shade of contempt in a question touching so near the human heart. He knows that every one is a man in the presence of sorrow and the conundrum of fate, contradiction of justice, tearing of death, and uneasiness of hope. ”

“ Critics and physiologists attacked him ofttimes with an arsenal of irrefutable arguments. It did not do any good. They affirmed in vain that the theory of heredity is not proved by any science, and above all it is difficult to grasp it and show it by facts; they pointed in vain that physiology cannot be fantastical and its laws cannot depend on the free conception of an author. Zola listened, continued to write, and in the last volume he gave a genealogical tree of the family of Rougon-Macquart, with such a serenity as if no one ever doubted his theory. ”

“ Leon.—But, madam, you should remember to whom you are speaking of such matters. I have no right to know of your family affairs.
Jadwiga.—No. You have not the right, nor are you obliged nor willing. Only friendly hearts know affliction—only those who suffer can sympathize. You—looking into the stars—you pass human misery and do not turn your head even when that misery shouts to you. It is your fault. ”

“ And nobody need be afraid, from a social point of view, for Sienkiewicz's objectivity. It is a manly lyricism as well as epic, made deep by the knowledge of the life, sustained by thinking, until now perhaps unconscious of itself, the poetry of a writer who walked many roads, studied many things, knew much bitterness, ridiculed many triflings, and then he perceived that a man like himself has only one aim: above human affairs "to spin the love, as the silkworm spins its web." ”

“ When one knows how to read a book, then from its pages the author's face looks out on him, a face not material, but just the same full of life. Sienkiewicz's face, looking on us from his books, is not always the same; it changes, and in his last book ("Quo Vadis") it is quite different, almost new.
There are some people who throw down a book after having read it, as one leaves a bottle after having drank the wine from it. There are others who read books with a pencil in their hands, and they mark the most striking passages. ”

“ But I tell you with more real probability, that the good are good because they have my faith, because they believe in responsibility and immortality of the soul, and the bad are bad because they do not believe in anything. How can you prove that the cause of good and bad is in great-grandmother Adelaïde Fouqué? Perhaps you will tell me that it is so because it is so; but I can tell you that the faith and responsibility were for centuries a stopper for evil, and you cannot deny it, if you wish to be a positivist, because those are material facts. ”

“ Drahomir.—George endured much, it is true, and one feels this although it is difficult to describe it. Look at those two men. When the wind blows George resists like a century-old tree, and men like the doctor subdue it and order it to propel his boat. There is in that some greater capacity for life, therefore the result is more easy to be foreseen. The tree is older, and although still strong, the more it is bitten by the storms, the sooner it will die. ”

“ No matter if every thief or every murderer can appeal to a grandmother with nervousness. Courts, notwithstanding the cycle of Rougon-Macquart, will place them behind bars. The evil is not in single cases, but in this, that into the human soul a bad pessimism and depression flows, that the charm of life is destroyed, the hope, the energy, the liking for life, and therefore all effort in the direction of good is shattered.
A quoi bon? Such is the question coming by itself. A book is also an activity, forming human souls. ”

“ Some voices began to rise asking for other spiritual bread; an instinctive sentiment awakes and cries that it cannot continue any longer in this way, that one must arise, shake off the mud, clean, change! The people ask for a fresh breeze. The masses cannot say what they want, but they know what they do not want; they know they are breathing bad air, and that they are suffocating. An uneasiness takes hold of their minds. ”