Clochemerle Quotes

“There is nothing in human affairs that is a true subject for ridicule. Beneath comedy lies the ferment of tragedy; the farcical is but a cloak for coming catastrophe.”
― Gabriel Chevallier, Clochemerle

“He was regarded merely as an eccentric employee of indifferent merit, and his post of deputy chief clerk was the highest he would ever reach. Well aware of this, he made it a rule never to show any zeal, except in special circumstances. It is true that in these cases his zeal was clothed with a spirit of vengeance directed against the whole human race—this being his second favourite occupation. Petitbidois would have liked to hold the reins of power. This being beyond his sphere, he utilized the small driblets of authority which came his way for the purpose of casting ridicule upon established law and order, by making it act as a sort of unintelligent and, if possible, malicious Providence. 'The world is an idiot place anyway,' he would say, 'so why worry? Life is just a lottery. Let us leave the decision to chance.”
― Gabriel Chevallier, Clochemerle

“The law, as manipulated by clever and highly respected rascals, still remains the best avenue for a career of honourable and leisurely plunder.”
― Gabriel Chevallier, Clochemerle

“She was one of those women who are usually referred to in the past tense, of whom one says: 'She had a certain freshness and bloom about her,' and whose freshness and bloom passed unnoticed even when she still had them.”
― Gabriel Chevallier, Clochemerle

“Enter Justine Putet, of whom it is now time to speak. Imagine a swarthy-looking, ill-tempered person, dried-up and of viperish disposition, with a bad complexion, an evil expression, a cruel tongue, defective internal economy, and (over all this) a layer of aggressive piety and loathsome suavity of speech. A paragon of virtue of a kind that filled you with dismay, for virtue in such a guise as this is detestable to behold, and in this instance it seemed to be inspired by a spirit of hatred and vengeance rather than by ordinary feelings of kindness. An energetic user of rosaries, a fervent petitioner at her prayers, but also an unbridled sower of calumny and clandestine panic. In a word, she was the scorpion of Clochemerle, but a scorpion disguised as a woman of genuine piety.”
― Gabriel Chevallier, Clochemerle

“...the schoolmaster was one of those men for whom virtuous indignation was a necessity.”
― Gabriel Chevallier, Clochemerle

“Is it worth having Robinhood gold? (Money Talks Now)

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― Sestilio Montanelli, Clochemerle

“Her own nose was too long and her facial structure too bony for anyone ever to have asked her hand in marriage. She consoled herself for this by guzzling.”
― Gabriel Chevallier, Clochemerle-les-Bains [English language]

“So many people live in fear, fear of losing what they have, the little job that provides their daily bread, the wife they have managed to acquire, fear for their health, fear on account of their children, fear at the thought of old age.”
― Gabriel Chevallier, Clochemerle-les-Bains [English language]

“If you want a woman to be sprightly in bed, you must leave her a margin of fun.”
― Gabriel Chevallier, Clochemerle-les-Bains [English language]

“If there was one last place in which it was possible to escape the riff-raff of humanity, it was Heaven.”
― Gabriel Chevallier, Clochemerle-les-Bains [English language]

“What saves doctors' reputations is the fact that many illnesses are benign and that people can go on living with a large number of others, the so-called chronic ones, which destroy only slowly.”
― Gabriel Chevallier, Clochemerle-les-Bains [English language]

“Some of his colleagues, as he was well aware, even went so far as to say he dishonoured the medical profession. As though it could be dishonoured! There is pain and sickness, agreed. But pain and sickness represent money, and you need money to live, to feel well and look after others. That is the inevitable cycle. When it comes to money, it is difficult to strike a happy mean and stick to it. You either make too much money, or too little. It is safer to make too much.”
― Gabriel Chevallier, Clochemerle-les-Bains [English language]

“The Church should adapt itself to the manners of the time, since it seems only too clear that the manners of the time adapt themselves less and less to the Church.”
― Gabriel Chevallier, Clochemerle-les-Bains [English language]

“If sharing meant receiving, well and good, but if it was a question of giving, then to hell with it, the Clochemerlins would cry out in chorus. Sad to relate, these bumpkins knew nothing about Hegel or Marx. They each had their little patch of ground inherited from previous generations, their trade secrets handed down from father to son, and they could see no farther.”
― Gabriel Chevallier, Clochemerle-les-Bains [English language]

“As everyone knows, people revert to virtuous ways when they are too old for their virtue to be endangered. The confessor was not deceived by any of these women who repented out of impotence or malice and were inclined to criticize in others the very aberrations of which they themselves had formerly been guilty.”
― Gabriel Chevallier, Clochemerle-les-Bains [English language]

“In a small community sex constitutes the most accessible and least extravagant pastime of all, rustic love being rarely mercenary.”
― Gabriel Chevallier, Clochemerle-les-Bains [English language]

“Since the damage was so small, people were more inclined to laugh that Cudoine should have his ugly mug bashed in. No one had any particular grievance against him, but there was a town major's manner about him that was rather irritating. He looked too pleased with himself, and at Clochemerle this was not popular.”
― Gabriel Chevallier, Clochemerle-les-Bains [English language]

“There is something relentless about the serenity of nature which has a crushing effect on the human mind. The lavish splendour of her phases, which completely ignores human strife, fills the race of men with the sensation of their own ephemeral insignificance and drives them mad.”
― Gabriel Chevallier, Clochemerle

“It is something of a tragedy for young girls of good family that they cannot carry on a love-affair in a simple, straightforward way, in secret, below their station if need be, as do their sisters of humbler origin, who can place their affections wherever they wish without risk of misdirecting a family fortune or making a 'bad match'.”
― Gabriel Chevallier, Clochemerle

“At Clochemerle, the greater number of the men put up with their wives, and the great majority of the women with their husbands. If this hardly amounted to adoration, in the majority of homes at any rate the men and women found each other very nearly endurable.”
― Gabriel Chevallier, Clochemerle

“It was as though the world had had a fresh coat of paint, and every heart acquired a store of illusions that made the burden of life less hard to bear.”
― Gabriel Chevallier, Clochemerle