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Herbert George Wells citations
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Herbert George Wells, plus connu sous la signature H. G. Wells, né le 21 septembre 1866 à Bromley dans le Kent et mort le 13 août 1946 à Londres, est un écrivain britannique surtout connu aujourd'hui pour ses romans de science-fiction. Il fut cependant également l'auteur de nombreux romans de satire sociale, d'œuvres de prospective, de réflexions politiques et sociales ainsi que d'ouvrages de vulgarisation touchant aussi bien à la biologie, à l'histoire qu'aux questions sociales. Il est considéré comme le père de la science-fiction contemporaine. Wikipedia  

✵ 21. septembre 1866 – 13. août 1946  •  Autres noms H.G. Wells, Герберт Уэллс
Herbert George Wells photo
Herbert George Wells: 148 citations0 J'aime

Herbert George Wells citations célèbres

“Notre véritable État […] doit être dès maintenant ce nouvel État fédéral mondial […]. Notre vraie nationalité est le genre humain.”

Herbert George Wells livre The Outline of History

Our true State [...] must be now this nascent Federal World State [...]. Our true nationality is mankind.
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The Outline of History, 1919

“Toute la vie est changement.”

Herbert George Wells livre Enfants des étoiles

Enfants des étoiles, 1939

“Beaucoup de vérités ont été dites en plaisantant, et nous possédons indiscutablement dans les Martiens l'accomplissement réel de cette suppression du côté animal de l'organisme par l'intelligence. Il est, à mon avis, absolument admissible que les Martiens puissent descendre d'êtres assez semblables à nous, par suite d'un développement graduel du cerveau et des mains - ces dernières se transformant en deux faisceaux de tentacules - aux dépens du reste du corps. Sans le corps, du cerveau naîtrait naturellement une intelligence plus égoîste, ne possédant plus rien du substratum émotionnel de l'être humain.”

Herbert George Wells livre La Guerre des mondes

fr
La Guerre des mondes (The War of Worlds), 1898

“Or, chaque fois que les choses sont telles qu’un tas de gens éprouvent le besoin de s’en mêler, les faibles, et ceux qui le deviennent à force de trop réfléchir, aboutissent toujours à une religion de Rien-Faire, très pieuse et très élevée, et finissent par se soumettre à la persécution et à la volonté du Seigneur. Vous avez déjà dû remarquer cela aussi. C’est de l’énergie à l’envers dans une rafale de terreur. Les cages de ceux-là seront pleines de psaumes, de cantiques et de piété, et ceux qui sont d’une espèce moins simple se tourneront sans doute vers – comment appelez-vous cela?”

Herbert George Wells livre La Guerre des mondes

l’érotisme. »
fr
La Guerre des mondes (The War of Worlds), 1898

“Cependant, par-delà le gouffre de l’espace, des esprits qui sont à nos esprits ce que les nôtres sont à ceux des bêtes qui périssent, des intellects vastes, calmes et impitoyables, considéraient cette terre avec des yeux envieux, dressaient lentement et sûrement leurs plans pour la conquête de notre monde.”

Herbert George Wells livre La Guerre des mondes

fr
La Guerre des mondes (The War of Worlds), 1898

“Avant que nous les jugions trop sévèrement, nous devons nous souvenir à quelle destruction totale et impitoyable notre propre espèce s'est livrée, non seulement sur les animaux, comme le bison ou le dodo, mais aussi sur ses propres races inférieures. Les Tasmaniens, malgré leur apparence humaine, furent entièrement éliminés en cinquante ans dans une guerre d'extermination menée par des immigrants européens. Sommes nous de tels apôtres de miséricorde que nous puissions nous plaindre si les Martiens ont mené contre nous une guerre semblable?”

Herbert George Wells livre La Guerre des mondes

And before we judge of them too harshly we must remember what ruthless and utter destruction our own species has wrought, not only upon animals, such as the vanished bison and the dodo, but upon its inferior races. The Tasmanians, in spite of their human likeness, were entirely swept out of existence in a war of extermination waged by European immigrants, in the space of fifty years. Are we such apostles of mercy as to complain if the Martians warred in the same spirit?
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La Guerre des mondes (The War of Worlds), 1898

Herbert George Wells: Citations en anglais

“"Why!" said Huxter, suddenly, "that's not a man at all. It's just empty clothes. Look! You can see down his collar and the linings of his clothes. I could put my arm—"He extended his hand; it seemed to meet something in mid-air, and he drew it back with a sharp exclamation. "I wish you'd keep your fingers out of my eye," said the aerial voice, in a tone of savage expostulation. "The fact is, I'm all here: head, hands, legs, and all the rest of it, but it happens I'm invisible. It's a confounded nuisance, but I am. That's no reason why I should be poked to pieces by every stupid bumpkin in Iping, is it?"”

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H. G. Wells livre The Invisible Man

Source: The Invisible Man (1897), Chapter 7: The Unveiling of the Stranger

“Heresies are experiments in man's unsatisfied search for truth.”

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H. G. Wells livre Crux Ansata

Crux Ansata: An Indictment of the Roman Catholic Church (1943)

“Raymond Passworthy: Oh, God, is there ever to be any age of happiness? Is there never to be any rest?”

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H. G. Wells livre The Shape of Things to Come

Things to Come (1936)

“And this Thing I saw! How can I describe it? A monstrous tripod, higher than many houses, striding over the young pine trees, and smashing them aside in its career; a walking engine of glittering metal, striding now across the heather; articulate ropes of steel dangling from it, and the clattering tumult of its passage mingling with the riot of the thunder.”

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H. G. Wells livre La Guerre des mondes

Book I, Ch. 10: In the Storm
The War of the Worlds (1898)

“At any rate, whether we expect another invasion or not, our views of the human future must be greatly modified by these events. We have learned now that we cannot regard this planet as being fenced in and a secure abiding place for Man; we can never anticipate the unseen good or evil that may come upon us suddenly out of space. It may be that in the larger design of the universe this invasion from Mars is not without its ultimate benefit for men; it has robbed us of that serene confidence in the future which is the most fruitful source of decadence, the gifts to human science it has brought are enormous, and it has done much to promote the conception of the commonweal of mankind. It may be that across the immensity of space the Martians have watched the fate of these pioneers of theirs and learned their lesson, and that on the planet Venus they have found a securer settlement. Be that as it may, for many years yet there will certainly be no relaxation of the eager scrutiny of the Martian disk, and those fiery darts of the sky, the shooting stars, will bring with them as they fall an unavoidable apprehension to all the sons of men.”

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H. G. Wells livre La Guerre des mondes

Book II, Ch. 10 (Ch. 27 in editions without Book divisions): The Epilogue
The War of the Worlds (1898)

“On the supposition that the world is to go on divided among aggressive sovereign states, with phases of war preparation known as peace and acute phases of more and more destructive war, it is quite a good move in the game. On the supposition that the world is growing up to an age of reason, and that a world of civilisation is attainable, it is a monstrous crime.”

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H. G. Wells

On the British government's decision to build the Singapore Naval Base, in an article for the Westminster Gazette (13 October 1923)

“Crime and bad lives are the measure of a State's failure, all crime in the end is the crime of the community.”

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H. G. Wells livre A Modern Utopia

Source: A Modern Utopia (1905), Ch. 5, sect. 2

“A time will come when a politician who has willfully made war and promoted international dissension will be as sure of the dock and much surer of the noose than a private homicide. It is not reasonable that those who gamble with men's lives should not stake their own.”

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H. G. Wells

The Salvaging of Civilization (1921)

“There comes a moment in the day when you have written your pages in the morning, attended to your correspondence in the afternoon, and have nothing further to do. Then comes that hour when you are bored; that’s the time for sex.”

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H. G. Wells

Quoted in Charlie Chaplin, My Autobiography (1964)

“The man's become inhuman, I tell you," said Kemp. "I am as sure he will establish a reign of terror—so soon as he has got over the emotions of this escape—as I am sure I am talking to you. Our only chance is to be ahead. He has cut himself off from his kind. His blood be upon his own head.”

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H. G. Wells livre The Invisible Man

Source: The Invisible Man (1897), Chapter 25: The Hunting of the Invisible Man

“Kipps was unprepared for the unpleasant truth; that the path of social advancement is and must be strewn with broken friendships.”

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H. G. Wells

Kipps the Story of a Simple Soul (1905) Bk. 2, ch. 5

“Every citizen knows his place. He is born to that place, and the elaborate discipline of training and education and surgery he undergoes fits him at last so completely to it that he has neither ideas nor organs for any purpose beyond it.”

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H. G. Wells livre The First Men in the Moon

Source: The First Men in the Moon (1901), Ch. 24: The Natural History of the Selenites

“Oswald Cabal: There’s nothing wrong in suffering, if you suffer for a purpose. Our revolution didn’t abolish danger or death. It simply made danger and death worthwhile.”

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H. G. Wells livre The Shape of Things to Come

Things to Come (1936)

“Man is an imperfect animal and never quite trustworthy in the dark.”

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H. G. Wells livre The Open Conspiracy

The Open Conspiracy (1928)

“"By Heaven, Kemp, you don't know what rage is! To have worked for years, to have planned and plotted, and then to get some fumbling purblind idiot messing across your course! Every conceivable sort of silly creature that has ever been created has been sent to cross me."If I have much more of it, I shall go wild—I shall start mowing 'em."As it is, they’ve made things a thousand times more difficult.""No doubt it’s exasperating," said Kemp, dryly.”

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H. G. Wells livre The Invisible Man

Source: The Invisible Man (1897), Chapter 23: In Drury Lane

“Oswald Cabal: Rest enough for the individual man, too much and too soon, and we call it death. But for Man, no rest and no ending. He must go on, conquest beyond conquest. First, this little planet and its winds and ways. And then all the laws of mind and matter that restrain him. Then the planets about him, and, at last, out across immensity to the stars. And when he has conquered all the depths of space, and all the mysteries of time, still he will be beginning…”

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H. G. Wells livre The Shape of Things to Come

Things to Come (1936)

“The doctrine of the Kingdom of Heaven, which was the main teaching of Jesus, is certainly one of the most revolutionary doctrines that ever stirred and changed human thought.”

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H. G. Wells livre The Outline of History

Source: The Outline of History (1920), Ch. 28

“Cycle tracks will abound in Utopia.”

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H. G. Wells livre A Modern Utopia

Source: A Modern Utopia (1905), Ch. 2, sect. 3

“Thought has made me shameless. It does not matter at last at all if one is a little harsh or indelicate or ridiculous if that also is in the mystery of things.
Behind everything I perceive the smile that makes all effort and discipline temporary, all the stress and pain of life endurable. In the last resort I do not care whether I am seated on a throne or drunk or dying in a gutter. I follow my leading. In the ultimate I know, though I cannot prove my knowledge in any way whatever, that everything is right and all things mine.”

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H. G. Wells

Source: First and Last Things: A Confession of Faith and Rule of Life http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/4225 (1908), Ch. 4, sect. 6, The Last Confession

“So last January, with the beginning of a snowstorm in the air about me—and if it settled on me it would betray me!—weary, cold, painful, inexpressibly wretched, and still but half convinced of my invisible quality, I began this new life to which I am committed. I had no refuge, no appliances, no human being in the world in whom I could confide. To have told my secret would have given me away—made a mere show and rarity of me. Nevertheless, I was half-minded to accost some passer-by and throw myself upon his mercy. But I knew too clearly the terror and brutal cruelty my advances would evoke. I made no plans in the street. My sole object was to get shelter from the snow, to get myself covered and warm; then I might hope to plan. But even to me, an Invisible Man, the rows of London houses stood latched, barred, and bolted impregnably.”

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H. G. Wells livre The Invisible Man

Source: The Invisible Man (1897), Chapter 22: In The Emporium

“I remember that night. It was late at night—in the daytime one was bothered with the gaping, silly students—and I worked then sometimes till dawn. It came suddenly, splendid and complete in my mind. I was alone; the laboratory was still, with the tall lights burning brightly and silently. In all my great moments I have been alone. 'One could make an animal—a tissue—transparent! One could make it invisible! All except the pigments—I could be invisible!' I said, suddenly realising what it meant to be an albino with such knowledge. It was overwhelming. I left the filtering I was doing, and went and stared out of the great window at the stars. 'I could be invisible!' I repeated.

To do such a thing would be to transcend magic. And I beheld, unclouded by doubt, a magnificent vision of all that invisibility might mean to a man—the mystery, the power, the freedom. Drawbacks I saw none.”

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H. G. Wells livre The Invisible Man

Source: The Invisible Man (1897), Chapter 19: Certain First Principles

“"You don't understand," he said, "who I am or what I am. I'll show you. By Heaven! I'll show you." Then he put his open palm over his face and withdrew it. The centre of his face became a black cavity. "Here," he said. He stepped forward and handed Mrs. Hall something which she, staring at his metamorphosed face, accepted automatically. Then, when she saw what it was, she screamed loudly, dropped it, and staggered back. The nose—it was the stranger's nose! pink and shining—rolled on the floor.Then he removed his spectacles, and everyone in the bar gasped. He took off his hat, and with a violent gesture tore at his whiskers and bandages. For a moment they resisted him. A flash of horrible anticipation passed through the bar. "Oh, my Gard!" said some one. Then off they came.It was worse than anything. Mrs. Hall, standing open-mouthed and horror-struck, shrieked at what she saw, and made for the door of the house. Everyone began to move. They were prepared for scars, disfigurements, tangible horrors, but nothing! The bandages and false hair flew across the passage into the bar, making a hobbledehoy jump to avoid them. Everyone tumbled on everyone else down the steps. For the man who stood there shouting some incoherent explanation, was a solid gesticulating figure up to the coat-collar of him, and then—nothingness, no visible thing at all!”

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H. G. Wells livre The Invisible Man

Source: The Invisible Man (1897), Chapter 7: The Unveiling of the Stranger

“Rowena: I don’t suppose any man has ever understood any woman since the beginning of things. You don’t understand our imaginations, how wild our imaginations can be.”

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H. G. Wells livre The Shape of Things to Come

Things to Come (1936)

“And how will the New Republic treat the inferior races? How will it deal with the black? how will it deal with the yellow man? how will it tackle that alleged termite in the civilized woodwork, the Jew? Certainly not as races at all. […] And the Jew also it will treat as any other man. It is said that the Jew is incurably a parasite on the apparatus of credit. If there are parasites on the apparatus of credit, that is a reason for the legislative cleaning of the apparatus of credit, but it is no reason for the special treatment of the Jew. If the Jew has a certain incurable tendency to social parasitism, and we make social parasitism impossible, we shall abolish the Jew, and if he has not, there is no need to abolish the Jew.”

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H. G. Wells livre Anticipations

Anticipations (1902)

“Biologically the species is the accumulation of the experiments of all its successful individuals since the beginning.”

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H. G. Wells livre A Modern Utopia

Source: A Modern Utopia (1905), Ch. 3, sect. 4

“I have remarked, in the course of such air travel as I have done, that the airmen of all nations have a common resemblance to each other and that the patriotic virus in their blood is largely corrected by a wider professionalism.”

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H. G. Wells

The Outlook for Homo Sapiens (1942)

“Night, the mother of fear and mystery, was coming upon me.”

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H. G. Wells livre La Guerre des mondes

Book II, Ch. 8 (Ch. 25 in editions without Book divisions): Dead London
The War of the Worlds (1898)

“I remember I felt an extraordinary persuasion that I was being played with, that presently, when I was upon the very verge of safety, this mysterious death--as swift as the passage of light--would leap after me from the pit about the cylinder and strike me down.”

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H. G. Wells livre La Guerre des mondes

Book I, Ch. 5: The Heat-Ray
The War of the Worlds (1898)

“Since the passing of Victoria the Great there had been an accumulating uneasiness in the national life. It was as if some compact and dignified paper-weight had been lifted from people's ideas, and as if at once they had begun to blow about anyhow.”

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H. G. Wells livre The Soul of a Bishop

The Soul of a Bishop (1917)

“He was inordinately proud of England, and he abused her incessantly.”

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H. G. Wells

Mr. Britling Sees It Through, Bk. 1, ch. 2, sect. 2 (1916)

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