Quotations in different languages:
English | Italian | Spanish | Danish

English

"Do we not all spend the greater part of our lives under the shadow of an event that has not yet come to pass?"

"We are alone, absolutely alone on this chance planet: and, amid all the forms of life that surround us, not one, excepting the dog, has made an alliance with us."

"When we lose one we love, our bitterest tears are called forth by the memory of hours when we loved not enough."

"Many a happiness in life, as many a disaster, can be due to chance, but the peace within us can never be governed by chance. "

"Our reason may prove what it will: our reason is only a feeble ray that has issued from Nature."

"Remember that happiness is as contagious as gloom. It should be the first duty of those who are happy to let others know of their gladness."

"At every crossroads on the path that leads to the future, tradition has placed 10.000 men to guard the past."

"A truth that disheartens because it is true is of more value than the most stimulating of falsehoods."

"All our knowledge merely helps us to die a more painful death than animals that know nothing."

"An act of goodness is of itself an act of happiness. No reward coming after the event can compare with the sweet reward that went with it."

"Mens weaknesses are often necessary to the purposes of life."

"For, when with beauty we can virtue join, we paint the semblance of a form divine."

"Happiness is rarely absent; it is we that know not of its presence.
We possess only the happiness we are able to understand."

"It is sad, but all things in nature are sad when we look too closely at them. It will always be thus as long as we do not know nature's secret, or do not even know whether she truly has a secret. And should we discover some day that there is no secret, or that the secret is monstrous, new duties will present themselves. In the meantime let our hearts remark "it is sad," yet let our reason add "but thus it is." For the present, our duty is to seek out what may be hiding behind our sorrows by studying them with the same courage and interest as if they were joys. Before we judge nature, or before we complain, we should at least ask every question we can possibly ask."
The Life of the Bee (translation)

"In the world which we know, among the different and primitive geniuses that preside over the evolution of the several species, there exists not one, excepting that of the dog, that ever gave a thought to the presence of man."
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Italian

"Non dobbiamo guadagnarci la sua fiducia o la sua amicizia: è nato per essere nostro amico; quando i suoi occhi sono ancora chiusi, lui già crede in noi: prima ancora di nascere, ha già dato se stesso all'uomo"

"Alcune creature hanno paura di noi, la maggior parte di esse ci ignora e neanche una ci ama... (mia considerazione personale credo si riferisse agli umani...). Ora in questa indifferenza... in questo mondo di incomunicabilità... dove tra le cose create non esistono altre reazioni che quelle tra carnefici e vittime, predatori e prede... un solo animale, tra quelli che popolano la terra, è riuscito a spezzare il cerchio profetico, a scappare da se stesso per incamminarsi verso di noi... Questo animale, il nostro buon, familiare cane... ha ciò nondimeno compiuto una delle azioni più insolite ed improbabili che si possano trovare nella storia della vita..."
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Spanish

La sabiduría y el destino (fragmento)

" Es verdad, y este es el consuelo del justo, del héroe y del sabio; el destino sólo tiene imperio en ellos por el bien que ellos hacen. Los demás hombres son ciudades de cien puertas abiertas por las cuales cualquier cosa puede penetrar; pero el justo es una ciudad cerrada que sólo tiene una puerta de luz, y el destino no puede abrirla más que cuando logra que el amor llame a esta puerta; él obliga a los demás hombres a hacer lo que él quiere, y el destino cuando es libre no quiere casi siempre sino el mal; pero si piensa en reinar sobre el justo, es necesario también que piense en hacer el bien.

(...)

Si es una aventura miserable, todo el pueblo, toda la ciudad acude; pero si es un rayo de hermosura que viene a herir nuestro ojo, o un rayo de amor que viene a iluminar nuestro corazón, nadie se ocupa de ello. "
(Quelle: http://www.epdlp.com/texto.php?letra=m%#1811)

La inteligencia de las flores (fragmento)

" La vallisneria es una hierba bastante insignificante que no tiene nada de la gracia extraña del nenúfar o de ciertas cabelleras submarinas. Pero se diría que la naturaleza se ha complacido en poner en ella una hermosa idea. Toda la existencia de la pequeña planta transcurre en el fondo del agua, en una especie de semisueño, hasta la hora nupcial en que aspira a una vida nueva. Entonces la flor hembra desarrolla lentamente la larga espiral de su pedúnculo, sube, emerge, domina y se abre en la superficie del estanque. De un tronco vecino, las flores masculinas que la vislumbran a través del agua iluminada por el sol se elevan a su vez, llenas de esperanza, hacia la que se balancea, las espera y las llama en un mundo mágico. Pero a medio camino se sienten bruscamente retenidas: su tallo, manantial de vida, es demasiado corto; no alcanzarán jamás la mansión de luz, la única en que puede realizarse la unión de los estambres y del pistilo. ¿Hay en la naturaleza una inadvertencia o prueba más cruel? ¡Imaginaos el drama de ese deseo, lo inaccesible que se toca, la fatalidad transparente, lo imposible sin obstáculo visible!. "
(Quelle: http://www.epdlp.com/texto.php?letra=m%#1811)

"De todas las fromas de vida que nos rodean, la única que se ha aliado con nosotros es el perro."
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Danish

"Vi er helt alene på denne planet, omgivet af alle former for liv, kun hunden er parat til at indgå en alliance med os".

"Vi behøver ikke at gøre os fortjent til hans venskab: han er født som vores ven: mens hans øjne stadig er lukkede, tror han på os: selv før hans fødsel, har han givet sig selv til mennesket".
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