Henryk Sienkiewicz citations

Petronius, Ch. 72
Quo Vadis (1895)
Contexte: Whoso loves beauty is unable for that very reason to love deformity. One may not believe in our gods, but it is possible to love them...

11 November
Without Dogma (1891)
Contexte: I love her now beyond all words; she sees it, — she reads it in my eyes, and in my whole manner towards her. When I succeed in cheering her up, or call forth her smiles, I am beside myself with delight. There is at present in my love something of the attachment of the faithful servant who loves his mistress. I often feel as if I ought to humble myself before her, as if my proper place were at her feet. She never can grow ugly, changed, or old to me. I accept everything, agree to everything, and worship her as she is.

11 July
Without Dogma (1891)
Contexte: Aniela knew very well that her departure would be to me a more dangerous catastrophe than a wound on my head or the loss of an arm or leg; and yet she did not hesitate a moment. I was perfectly aware that it was all her doing. She wanted to be near her husband, and what would become of me was not taken into account.

Source: In Desert and Wilderness

Letter of Petronius to Nero, Ch. 73
Quo Vadis (1895)
Contexte: Rome stuffs its ears when it hears thee; the world reviles thee. I can blush for thee no longer, and I have no wish to do so. The howls of Cerberus, though resembling thy music, will be less offensive to me, for I have never been the friend of Cerberus, and I need not be ashamed of his howling.

"Rome, 9 January"
Without Dogma (1891)
Contexte: My position is such that there is no necessity for me to enter into competition with struggling humanity. As to expensive and ruinous pleasures, I am a sceptic who knows how much they are worth, or rather, knows that they are not worth anything.

10 November
Without Dogma (1891)
Contexte: Formerly character proved a strong curb for passions; in the present there is not much strength in character, and it grows less and less because of the prevailing scepticism, which is a decomposing element. It is like a bacillus breeding in the human soul; it destroys the resistant power against the physiological craving of the nerves, of nerves diseased. The modern man is conscious of everything, and cannot find a remedy against anything.

11 November
Without Dogma (1891)
Contexte: I love her now beyond all words; she sees it, — she reads it in my eyes, and in my whole manner towards her. When I succeed in cheering her up, or call forth her smiles, I am beside myself with delight. There is at present in my love something of the attachment of the faithful servant who loves his mistress. I often feel as if I ought to humble myself before her, as if my proper place were at her feet. She never can grow ugly, changed, or old to me. I accept everything, agree to everything, and worship her as she is.

Petronius, as depicted in the novel, speaking to Marcus Vinicius,<!-- entirely fictional character, NOT the historical figure. --> in Ch. 1
Quo Vadis (1895)
Contexte: Pliny declares, as I hear, that he does not believe in the gods, but he believes in dreams; and perhaps he is right. My jests do not prevent me from thinking at times that in truth there is only one deity, eternal, creative, all-powerful, Venus Genetrix. She brings souls together; she unites bodies and things. Eros called the world out of chaos. Whether he did well is another question; but, since he did so, we should recognize his might, though we are free not to bless it.

13 November
Without Dogma (1891)
Contexte: It is not merely a question of sorrow after the death of a beloved being, but of the reproaches she will apply to herself, thinking that if she had loved him more he might have clung more to his life. Empty, trivial, and unjust reproaches, for she did everything that force of will could command, — she spurned my love and remained pure and faithful to him. But one must know that soul full of scruples as I know it, to gauge the depth of misery into which the news would plunge her, and how she would suspect herself, — asking whether his death did not correspond to some deeply hidden desire on her part for freedom and happiness; whether it did not gratify those wishes she had scarcely dared to form.

4 August
Without Dogma (1891)
Contexte: If it be a great misfortune to love another man's wife, be she ever so commonplace, it is an infinitely greater misfortune to love a virtuous woman. There is something in my relations to Aniela of which I never heard or read; there is no getting out of it, no end. A solution, whether it be a calamity or the fulfilment of desire, is something, but this is only an enchanted circle. If she remain immovable and I do not cease loving her, it will be an everlasting torment, and nothing else. And I have the despairing conviction that neither of us will give way.

Petronius, Ch. 72
Quo Vadis (1895)
Contexte: No God has promised me immortality; hence no surprise meets me. At the same time thou art mistaken, Vinicius, in asserting that only thy God teaches man to die calmly. No. Our world knew, before thou wert born, that when the last cup was drained, it was time to go, — time to rest, — and it knows yet how to do that with calmness. Plato declares that virtue is music, that the life of a sage is harmony. If that be true, I shall die as I have lived, — virtuously.

Petronius, Ch. 72
Quo Vadis (1895)
Contexte: No God has promised me immortality; hence no surprise meets me. At the same time thou art mistaken, Vinicius, in asserting that only thy God teaches man to die calmly. No. Our world knew, before thou wert born, that when the last cup was drained, it was time to go, — time to rest, — and it knows yet how to do that with calmness. Plato declares that virtue is music, that the life of a sage is harmony. If that be true, I shall die as I have lived, — virtuously.

10 November
Without Dogma (1891)
Contexte: It is an altogether wrong idea that the modern product of civilization is less susceptible to love. I sometimes think it is the other way.

Source: Quo Vadis

Lygia to Marcus Vinicius, in Ch. 2
Quo Vadis (1895)

Nobel Prize acceptance speech (1905)

Petronius, in Ch. 2
Quo Vadis (1895)

The doctor, to Leon, 15 November
Without Dogma (1891)

Rome, 5 December
Without Dogma (1891)

Petronius to Marcus Vinicius, in Ch. 3
Quo Vadis (1895)

20 November
Without Dogma (1891)

11 July
Without Dogma (1891)

17 November
Without Dogma (1891)

Leon Ploszowski in his first entry in his diary, "Rome, 9 January"
Without Dogma (1891)

12 November
Without Dogma (1891)

9 November
Without Dogma (1891)

9 November
Without Dogma (1891)

Marcus Vinicius to Lygia, in Ch. 2
Quo Vadis (1895)