Henri Barbusse Quotes

• I keep remembering — I keep remembering. My heart has no pity on me.

  Henri Barbusse

  Heart, Remember, Pity

  Henri Barbusse (2005). “The Inferno”, p.85, 1st World Publishing

  51 Copy quote

• Stop war? Impossible! There is no cure for the world's disease.

  Henri Barbusse

  War, World, Disease

  Henri Barbusse (2013). “Under Fire”, p.4, Lulu Press, Inc

  21 Copy quote

• It was suicide. Others killed themselves with poison or with a revolver. I killed myself with minutes and hours.

  Henri Barbusse

  Suicide, Poison, Hours

  Henri Barbusse (2005). “The Inferno”, p.44, 1st World Publishing

  21 Copy quote

• I see too deep and too much.

  Henri Barbusse

  Too Much, Too Deep

  "The Inferno". Book by Henri Barbusse, 1917.

  15 Copy quote

• 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

  Echoes, People, Looks

  Henri Barbusse (2005). “The Inferno”, p.65, 1st World Publishing

  18 Copy quote

• Yes, there is a Divinity, one from which we must never turn aside for the guidance of our huge inward life and of the share we have as well in the life of all men. It is called the truth.

  Henri Barbusse

  Men, Inward, Divinity

  "Under Fire". Book by Henri Barbusse, 1916.

  13 Copy quote

• 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

  Falling In Love, Reality, World

  13 Copy quote

• Two armies that fight each other is like one large army that commits suicide.

  Henri Barbusse

  Suicide, War, Fighting

  "Under Fire". Book by Henri Barbusse, 1916.

  10 Copy quote

• People are machines of forgetfulness

  Henri Barbusse

  People, Machines, Forgetfulness

  8 Copy quote

• How I waited for you! How I longed for you! he stammered. "I thought of you all the time. I saw you all the time. Your smile was everywhere." He lowered his voice and added, "Sometimes when people were talking commonplaces and your name happened to be mentioned, It would go through my heart like an electric current.

  Henri Barbusse

  Heart, Talking, Names

  Henri Barbusse (2009). “The Inferno”, p.213, The Floating Press

  11 Copy quote

• There is no hell, no inferno except the frenzy of living.

  Henri Barbusse

  Hell, Inferno, Frenzy

  Henri Barbusse (2005). “The Inferno”, p.157, 1st World Publishing

  8 Copy quote

• Two armies at death-grips — that is one great army committing suicide.

  Henri Barbusse

  Suicide, Army, Two

  Henri Barbusse (1929). “Under Fire: The Story of a Squad”, p.8, Lulu.com

  7 Copy quote

• We have the divinity of our great misery. And our solitude, with its toilsome ideas, tears and laughter, is fatally divine.

  Henri Barbusse

  Laughter, Ideas, Solitude

  Henri Barbusse (2005). “The Inferno”, p.154, 1st World Publishing

  4 Copy quote

• At the touch of mankind, things wear away with heartbreaking slowness.

  Henri Barbusse

  Heartbreaking, Mankind, Slowness

  4 Copy quote

• We are all, always, the desire not to die. This desire is as immeasurable and varied as life's complexity, but at bottom this is what it is: To continue to be, to be more and more, to develop and to endure. All the force we have, all our energy and clearness of mind serve to intensify themselves in one way or another. We intensify ourselves with new impressions, new sensations, new ideas. We endeavour to take what we do not have and to add it to ourselves. Humanity is the desire for novelty founded upon the fear of death. That is what it is.

  Henri Barbusse

  Wisdom, Ideas, Humanity

  "The Inferno". Book by Henri Barbusse, 1917.

  12 Copy quote

• whatever our ignorance left to itself, and whatever the wounds that other human beings are, we ought to study ourselves with a sort of devotion.

  Henri Barbusse

  Ignorance, Study, Devotion

  Henri Barbusse (2009). “The Inferno”, p.236, The Floating Press

  11 Copy quote

• It is not a woman I want - it is all women.

  Henri Barbusse

  Want

  "The Inferno". Book by Henri Barbusse, 1917.

  7 Copy quote

• I do not regret my youth and its beliefs. Up to now, I have wasted my time to live. Youth is the true force, but it is too rarely lucid. Sometimes it has a triumphant liking for what is now, and the pugnacious broadside of paradox may please it. But there is a degree in innovation which they who have not lived very much cannot attain. And yet who knows if the stern greatness of present events will not have educated and aged the generation which to-day forms humanity's effective frontier? Whatever our hope may be, if we did not place it in youth, where should we place it?

  Henri Barbusse

  Regret, Greatness, Humanity

  "Light" by Henri Barbusse, (Ch. XXII), 1919.

  10 Copy quote

• There are cloudy moments when one asks himself if men do not deserve all the disasters into which they rush! No - I recover myself - they do not deserve them. But we, instead of saying "I wish" must say "I will." And what we will, we must will to build it, with order, with method, beginning at the beginning, when once we have been as far as that beginning. We must not only open our eyes, but our arms, our wings.

  Henri Barbusse

  Eye, Men, Order

  "Clarté (Light)". Book by Henri Barbusse translated by Fitzwater Wray (Chapter XXI: No!), 1919.

  9 Copy quote

• I believe, in spite of all, in truth's victory. I believe in the momentous value, hereafter inviolable, of those few truly fraternal men in all the countries of the world, who, in the oscillation of national egoisms let loose, stand up and stand out, steadfast as the glorious statues of Right and Duty.

  Henri Barbusse

  Country, Believe, Men

  Henri Barbusse (1919). “Light”

  9 Copy quote

• 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

  Tired, Heart, Depth

  Henri Barbusse (2005). “The Inferno”, p.152, 1st World Publishing

  11 Copy quote

• Let everything be remade on simple lines. There is only one people, there is only one people!

  Henri Barbusse

  Simple, People, Lines

  Henri Barbusse (1919). “Light”

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Believe, Solitude, Doe

  7 Copy quote

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