Goncourt brothers Quotes

There have been many definitions of beauty in art. What is it? Beauty is what untrained eyes consider abominable.

One of the proud joys of the man of letters—if that man of letters is an artist—is to feel within himself the power to immortalize at will anything he chooses to immortalize. Insignificant though he may be, he is conscious of possessing a creative divinity. God creates lives; the man of imagination creates fictional lives which may make a more profound and as it were more living impression on the world's memory.

S'il y a un Dieu, l'athéisme doit lui sembler une moindre injure que la religion.

In the language of the bourgeoisie, the grandeur of the words is in direct proportion to the pettiness of the sentiments.

The English are crooked as a nation and honest as individuals. The contrary is true of the French, who are honest as a nation and crooked as individuals.

L'Anglais, filou comme peuple, est honnête comme individu. Il est le contraire du Français, honnête comme peuple et filou comme individu.

Un livre n'est jamais un chef-d'œuvre, il le devient. Le génie est le talent d'un homme mort.

Il n'y a que deux grands courants dans l'histoire de l'humanité: la bassesse qui fait les conservateurs et l'envie qui fait les révolutionnaires.

A book is never a masterpiece: it becomes one. Genius is the talent of a dead man.