Papillon Quotes

“We have too much technological
progress, life is too hectic, and our society has only one goal: to invent
still more technological marvels to make life even easier and better.
The craving for every new scientific discovery breeds a hunger for
greater comfort and the constant struggle to achieve it. All that kills the
soul, kills compassion, understanding, nobility. It leaves no time for
caring what happens to other people, least of all criminals. Even the
officials in Venezuela's remote areas are better for they're also
concerned with public peace. It gives them many headaches, but they
seem to believe that bringing about a man's salvation is worth the
effort. I find that magnificent.”
― Henri Charrière, Papillon

“I must prove that I can be, that I am and will be, a normal person. Perhaps no better, but certainly no worse than the rest.”
― Henri Charrière, Papillon

“I’ve known this a long time, because when Napoleon III created the bagnes and was asked: “But who will guard these bandits?” he answered: “Worse bandits.”
― Henri Charrière, Papillon

“We have too much technological progress, life is too hectic, and our society has only one goal: to invent still more technological marvels to make life even easier and better. The craving for every new scientific discovery breeds a hunger for greater comfort and the constant struggle to achieve it. All that kills the soul, kills compassion, understanding, nobility. It leaves no time for caring what happens to other people, least of all criminals.”
― Henri Charrière, Papillon

“It was worth having made this break for the people, the human beings it had brought me into contact with. Although it had failed, my escape had been a victory, merely by having enriched my heart with the friendship of these wonderful people. No, I was not sorry. I had done it.”
― Henri Charrière, Papillon

“Those who haven't been exposed to the hypocrisies of a civilized education react to things 'naturally', as they happen. It is in the here and now that they are either happy or unhappy, joyful or sad, interested or indifferent.”
― Henri Charrière, Papillon

“He even whispered in my ear: “You suffer; you will suffer more. But this time I am on your side. You will be free. You will, I promise you.”
― Henri Charrière, Papillon

“He agreed that I should buy another dictionary or, better yet, a phrase book with standard Spanish expressions. He also suggested that it would be a good idea if I learned to stammer, because people would get bored listening to me and would finish the sentence for me; this way my accent wouldn't be noticed.”
― Henri Charrière, Papillon

“What should we do? I was beginning to understand a few words of Spanish: to escape, fugar; prisoner, preso; to kill, matar; chain, cadena; handcuffs, esposas; man, hombre; woman, mujer.”
― Henri Charrière, Papillon

“The important thing was that we were alive...”
― Henri Charrière, Papillon

“This was 1941 and I'd been in prison eleven years. I was thirty-five. I'd spent the best years of my life either in a cell or in a black-hole. I'd only had seven months of total freedom with my Indian tribe. The children my Indian wives must have had by me would be eight years old now. How terrible! How quickly the time had flashed by! But a backward glance showed all these hours and minutes studding my calvary as terribly long, and each one of them hard to bear.”
― Henri Charrière, Papillon

“He told me to call him Zorrillo, which means little fox in Spanish.”
― Henri Charrière, Papillon

“My name is Jean sans Peur. I was handsomer, healthier and stronger than you when I first came to the bagne. Look at what ten years have done to me.”
― Henri Charrière, Papillon

“Je commence à me demander où diable sommes-nous.”
― Henri Charrière, Papillon

“Let me put it another way: the men, the system, the cogs of the machine that ground you down, the evil men who framed you and tortured you, have rendered you the greatest service possible. They brought forth a new man, superior to the first, and if today you recognize honor, goodness and charity, and realize the energy you will need to surmount the obstacles and become someone superior, you owe it to them.”
― Henri Charrière, Papillon

“It was a knockout blow — a punch so overwhelming that I didn't get back on my feet for fourteen years.”
― Henri Charrière, Papillon

“I got my plan. It was a highly polished aluminum tube, that unscrewed in the middle. It had a male half and a female half. It contained 5600 francs in new bills. When I got it, I kissed it. Yes, I kissed that little tube, two and a half inches long and as thick as your thumb, before shoving it into my anus. I took a deep breath so that it would lodge in the colon. It was my strongbox. They could make me take off all my clothes, spread my legs apart, make me cough or bend over double, for all the good it would do them. The plan was high up in the large intestine. It was a part of me. Inside me I carried my life, my freedom ... my road to revenge. For that's what was on my mind. Revenge. That's all that was, in fact.”
― Henri Charrière, Papillon

“Those who haven’t been exposed to the hypocrisies of a “civilized” education react to things naturally, as they happen. It is in the here and now that they are either happy or unhappy, joyful or sad, interested or indifferent”
― Henri Charrière, Papillon

“I’ve known this a long time, because when Napoleon III created the bagnes and was asked: “But who will guard these bandits?” he answered: “Worse bandits.” Later on, I was able to confirm the fact that the founding father of the bagnes had not been lying.”
― Henri Charrière, Papillon

“Sleep in peace, you members of the jury who condemned me to this place; sleep in peace,”
― Henri Charrière, Papillon

“Let me tell you that in my humble opinion the greater human civilization and the greater understanding is to be found in each member of this community, living simply and naturally; even if it is a community that lacks all the advantages of an industrial civilization. But though they may not have the benefits of progress, they have a much higher notion of Christian charity than all the other so-called civilized nations in the world. I'd rather have a man belonging to this village, unable to read or write, than a Sorbonne graduate, if that meant he would come to have the heart of the lawyer who got me sent down. The first is always a man; the other has forgotten how to be one”
― Henri Charrière, Papillon

“My heart was flooded with warmth: at last I had escaped from the road down the drain, and now it was for good.”
― Henri Charrière, Papillon

“Reader — supposing this book has readers some day — I am not clever and I don't possess the vivid style, the living power, that is needed to describe this immense feeling of self-respect — no, of rehabilitation, or even a new life. This figurative baptism, this bath of cleanliness, this raising of me above filth I had sunk in, this way of bringing me overnight face to face with true responsibility, quite simply changed my whole being. I had been a convict, a man who could hear his chains even when he was free and who always felt that someone was watching over him; I had been all the things that had urged me to become a marked, evil man, dangerous at all times, superficially docile yet terribly dangerous when he broke out: but all this had vanished — disappeared as though by magic. Thank you Mr. Bowen, barrister in His Majesty's courts of law, thank you for having made another man of me in so short a time!”
― Henri Charrière, Papillon

“jab”
― Henri Charrière, Papillon

“...pergunto a mim próprio até que ponto o silêncio absoluto
e o completo isolamento infligidos a um jovem encerrado numa cela podem,
antes de o levarem à loucura, dar azo a uma verdadeira vida imaginativa.
Vida de tal modo intensa , de tal modo viva, que o indivíduo se desdobra literalmente.
Levanta voo e vai vagabundear por onde lhe apetece. (...), os castelos no ar que o seu
fecundo espírito inventa, que ele cria com uma imaginação tão incrivelmente fértil que, (...),
chega a pensar que está a viver tudo quanto vai sonhando.”
― Henri Charrière, Papillon

“Mahkümluk serüvenimn son gecesinn siniriyle hamağımda dönüp duruyorm. Yerimden kalkıyor,son aylarda çok iyi baktığm bahçemde geziniyorum.Ay ışığı ortalığı gün gibi aydınlatıyor. Nehrin suyu, gürültü etmeden denize doğru akıyor. Kuş sesi duyulmuyor, hepsi uykuda. Gökyüzü yıldızlarla kaplı, ama ay öylesine parlak ki yıldızları görebilmek için ona sırt çevirmek gerek. Tam karşımda sık orman, tek açıklık..El Dorado köyünün yapıldığı yer. Doğanın bu derin sessizliği beni dinlendiriyor. İçimdeki telaş yavaş yavaş diniyor, bu anın durgunluğu…ihtiyaç duyduğum huzuru sağlıyor bana”
― Henri Charrière, Papillon

“Една пеперуда влетя — бледосиня с тънка черна лента, а някъде близо до нея зад прозореца зажужа пчела. Какво ли правеха тези живинки тук? Дали ги беше объркало зимното слънце, или търсеха да се скрият в затвора от студ? Пеперудата зиме е случайно възкръснало същество. Как ли се е спасила от смъртта? А пчеличката защо ли е напуснала кошера си? Каква неосъзната храброст — да дойдат тук! Добре че отговорникът няма криле, защото иначе няма за дълго да ги остави живички.”
― Henri Charrière, Papillon

“Cum adică, băiete! continuă şmecherul, ai două muieri, una mai mişto ca alta, trăieşti gol în mijlocul naturii c-o întreagă bandă de nudişti simpatici, haleşti, bei, vânezi; ai marea, soarele, nisipul cald, până şi perlele le capeţi pe damoaca, şi nu găseşti ceva mai bun de făcut decât să laşi baltă toate astea ca s-o iei din loc? Încotro? Zi! Ca să treci strada în fugă, să nu te calce maşinile, ca să fii nevoit să-ţi plăteşti chiria, croitorul, lumina şi telefonul, iar dacă ţi s-a făcut de-o maşină mică, să faci spargere, sau să munceşti ca un dobitoc pentru vreun patron, câştigând cât să nu mori de foame? Nu te-nţeleg, omule! Erai în cer şi te-ntorci de bunăvoie în iad, unde, pe lângă grijile vieţii, mai trebuie să te fereşti de toţi gaborii din lume care te vânează!”
― Henri Charrière, Papillon

“Everybody was stark naked, day and night. Luckily it was hot. They let me wear socks.”
― Henri Charrière, Papillon

“Everybody knows I was a millionaire. And from there to killing me because they think I'm carrying fifty or a hundred thousand francs around isn't a very long step.”
― Henri Charrière, Papillon