Quotes from book
Quo Vadis

Name: Quo Vadis
Author: Henryk Sienkiewicz

Henryk SienkiewiczOriginal title Quo vadis, Powieść z czasów Nerona (Polish, 1896)

Quo Vadis: A Narrative of the Time of Nero, commonly known as Quo Vadis, is a historical novel written by Henryk Sienkiewicz in Polish. "Quo vadis, Domine?" is Latin for "Where are you going, Lord?" and appears in Chapter 69 of the novel in a retelling of a story from the apocryphal Acts of Peter, in which Peter flees Rome but on his way meets Jesus and asks him why he is going to Rome. Jesus says, "If thou desertest my people, I am going to Rome to be crucified a second time", which shames Peter into going back to Rome to accept martyrdom.

“Whoso loves beauty is unable for that very reason to love deformity.”

Henryk Sienkiewicz book Quo Vadis

Petronius, Ch. 72
Quo Vadis (1895)
Context: 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...

“But I think happiness springs from another source, a far deeper one that doesn't depend on will because it comes from love.”

Henryk Sienkiewicz book Quo Vadis

Source: Quo Vadis

“Not Nero, but God, rules the world.”

Henryk Sienkiewicz book Quo Vadis

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

“Life deserves laughter, hence people laugh at it.”

Henryk Sienkiewicz book Quo Vadis

Petronius, in Ch. 2
Quo Vadis (1895)

“I consider that in dialectics I am the equal of Socrates. As to women, I agree that each has three or four souls, but none of them a reasoning one.”

Henryk Sienkiewicz book Quo Vadis

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

“Riches, glory, power are mere smoke, vanity! The rich man will find a richer than himself; the greater glory of another will eclipse a man who is famous; a strong man will be conquered by a stronger. But can Cæsar himself, can any god even, experience greater delight or be happier than a simple mortal at the moment when at his breast there is breathing another dear breast, or when he kisses beloved lips? Hence love makes us equal to the gods, O Lygia.”

Henryk Sienkiewicz book Quo Vadis

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

“O Petronius, thou hast seen what endurance and comfort that religion gives in misfortune, how much patience and courage before death; so come and see how much happiness it gives in ordinary, common days of life. People thus far did not know a God whom man could love, hence they did not love one another; and from that came their misfortune, for as light comes from the sun, so does happiness come from love. Neither lawgivers nor philosophers taught this truth, and it did not exist in Greece or Rome; and when I say, not in Rome, that means the whole world. The dry and cold teaching of the Stoics, to which virtuous people rally, tempers the heart as a sword is tempered, but it makes it indifferent rather than better.”

Henryk Sienkiewicz book Quo Vadis

Quo Vadis (1895)

“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.”

Henryk Sienkiewicz book Quo Vadis

Letter of Petronius to Nero, Ch. 73
Quo Vadis (1895)
Context: 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.

“Pliny declares, as I hear, that he does not believe in the gods, but he believes in dreams; and perhaps he is right.”

Henryk Sienkiewicz book Quo Vadis

Petronius, as depicted in the novel, speaking to Marcus Vinicius, in Ch. 1
Quo Vadis (1895)
Context: 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.

“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.”

Henryk Sienkiewicz book Quo Vadis

Petronius, Ch. 72
Quo Vadis (1895)
Context: 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.

“No God has promised me immortality; hence no surprise meets me.”

Henryk Sienkiewicz book Quo Vadis