Henri Barbusse > Quotes

“I believe that around us there is only one word on all sides, one immense word which reveals our solitude and extinguishes our radiance: Nothing! I believe that that word does not point to our insignificance or our unhappiness, but on the contrary to our fulfillment and our divinity, since everything is in ourselves.”
― Henri Barbusse, Hell

“I am more sensitive than other people. Things that other people would not notice awaken a distinct echo in me, and in such moments of lucidity, when I look at myself, I see that I am alone, all alone, all alone.”
― Henri Barbusse

“All lovers in the world are alike: they fall in love by chance; they see each other, and are attached to each other by the features of their faces; they illuminate each other by the fierce preference which is akin to madness; they assert the reality of illusions; and for a moment they change falsehood into truth.”
― Henri Barbusse, Hell

“The woman from the depths of her rags, a waif, a martyr — smiled. She must have a divine heart to be so tired and yet smile.”
― Henri Barbusse, Hell

“يري أكثر و أعمق مما يجب”
― Henri Barbusse

“At the touch of mankind, things wear away with heartbreaking slowness.”
― Henri Barbusse, Hell

“We have the divinity of our great misery. And our solitude, with its toilsome ideas, tears and laughter, is fatally divine.”
― Henri Barbusse, Hell

“I saw that they wanted to kill the past. When we are old, we let it die; when we are young and strong, we kill it.”
― Henri Barbusse, Hell

“Separation! They were very much alike in ideas and temperament, and just then they were helping each other as much as they could. But I saw clearly--I who was a spectator apart from men and whose gaze soared above them--that they were strangers, and that in spite of all appearances they did not see nor hear each other any more. They conversed as best they could, but neither could yield to the other, and each tried to conquer the other. And this terrible battle broke my heart.”
― Henri Barbusse

“They felt that everything was fleeting, that everything wore out, that everything that was not dead would die, and that even the illusory ties holding them together would not endure. Their sadness did not bring them together. On the contrary, they were separated by all the force of their two sorrows. To suffer together, alas, what disunion!”
― Henri Barbusse

“Let everything be remade on simple lines. There is only one people, there is only one people!”
― Henri Barbusse, Hell

“Déjà, le mois de septembre, lendemain d'août et veille d'octobre et qui est par sa situation le plus émouvant des mois parsème les beaux jours de quelques fins avertissements. Déjà, on comprend ces feuilles mortes qui courent sur les pierres plates comme une bande de moineaux.”
― Henri Barbusse, Under Fire

“There is no paradise except that which we create in the great tomb of the churches. There is no hell, no inferno except the frenzy of living.”
― Henri Barbusse