„Io credo che ogni uomo abbia due patrie; l’una è la sua personale, più vicina, e l’altra è l’Italia.“
Origine: Citato in Roberta Scorranese, Patrimonio collettivo, Corriere della Sera, 25 settembre 2017, p. 40.
Frasi di Henryk Sienkiewicz
11 8
Henryk Sienkiewicz
Data di nascita: 5. Maggio 1846
Data di morte: 15. Novembre 1916
Altri nomi: Henryk Adam Aleksander Pius Sienkiewicz
Henryk Adam Aleksander Pius Sienkiewicz è stato uno scrittore e giornalista polacco.
È l'autore del celebre romanzo Quo vadis?, per il quale ha ricevuto nel 1905 il Premio Nobel per la letteratura.
Lavori
Quo vadis?
Henryk SienkiewiczFrasi Henryk Sienkiewicz
„Ovunque l'uomo porti il suo lavoro, vi lascia anche qualche cosa del suo cuore.“
da La famiglia Polaniecki
„In quanto ai miei servi, una cosa attrasse la mia attenzione. Che il perdono non solo non li rese insolenti e indisciplinati, ma nessuna paura di castigo li ha mai resi così zelanti e premurosi come la gratitudine. Non solo essi fanno il loro dovere, ma pare che rivaleggino l'un l'altro a indovinare i miei desiderî. Ti dico questo perché il giorno prima di lasciare i cristiani, io dissi a Paolo che la società colla religione di Cristo, si sarebbe sfasciata come una botte senza cerchi; Paolo mi rispose che «l'amore è un cerchio più forte della paura». E ora vedo che in certi casi la sua opinione può essere giusta.“
— Henryk Sienkiewicz, libro Quo vadis?
1915, p. 124
Quo vadis?
„Il mondo è retto da Dio, non da Nerone.“
— Henryk Sienkiewicz, libro Quo vadis?
1973, p. 32
Quo vadis?
„Ciascuno ha il diritto di reclamare ciò che gli è dovuto.“
da La famiglia Polaniecki
„I might have been your happiness, and became your misfortune.“
— Henryk Sienkiewicz, libro Without Dogma
Rome, 5 December
Without Dogma (1891)
Contesto: I might have been your happiness, and became your misfortune. I am the cause of your death, for if I had been a different man, if I had not been wanting in all principles, all foundations of life, there would not have come upon you the shocks that killed you.
„Our world knew, before thou wert born, that when the last cup was drained, it was time to go, — time to rest, — and it knows yet how to do that with calmness. Plato declares that virtue is music, that the life of a sage is harmony. If that be true, I shall die as I have lived, — virtuously.“
— Henryk Sienkiewicz, libro Quo vadis?
Petronius, Ch. 72
Quo Vadis (1895)
Contesto: No God has promised me immortality; hence no surprise meets me. At the same time thou art mistaken, Vinicius, in asserting that only thy God teaches man to die calmly. No. Our world knew, before thou wert born, that when the last cup was drained, it was time to go, — time to rest, — and it knows yet how to do that with calmness. Plato declares that virtue is music, that the life of a sage is harmony. If that be true, I shall die as I have lived, — virtuously.
„Whoso loves beauty is unable for that very reason to love deformity.“
— Henryk Sienkiewicz, libro Quo vadis?
Petronius, Ch. 72
Quo Vadis (1895)
Contesto: Whoso loves beauty is unable for that very reason to love deformity. One may not believe in our gods, but it is possible to love them...
„I love her now beyond all words; she sees it, — she reads it in my eyes, and in my whole manner towards her.“
— Henryk Sienkiewicz, libro Without Dogma
11 November
Without Dogma (1891)
Contesto: I love her now beyond all words; she sees it, — she reads it in my eyes, and in my whole manner towards her. When I succeed in cheering her up, or call forth her smiles, I am beside myself with delight. There is at present in my love something of the attachment of the faithful servant who loves his mistress. I often feel as if I ought to humble myself before her, as if my proper place were at her feet. She never can grow ugly, changed, or old to me. I accept everything, agree to everything, and worship her as she is.
„She wanted to be near her husband, and what would become of me was not taken into account.“
— Henryk Sienkiewicz, libro Without Dogma
11 July
Without Dogma (1891)
Contesto: Aniela knew very well that her departure would be to me a more dangerous catastrophe than a wound on my head or the loss of an arm or leg; and yet she did not hesitate a moment. I was perfectly aware that it was all her doing. She wanted to be near her husband, and what would become of me was not taken into account.
„She never can grow ugly, changed, or old to me. I accept everything, agree to everything, and worship her as she is.“
— Henryk Sienkiewicz, libro Without Dogma
11 November
Without Dogma (1891)
Contesto: I love her now beyond all words; she sees it, — she reads it in my eyes, and in my whole manner towards her. When I succeed in cheering her up, or call forth her smiles, I am beside myself with delight. There is at present in my love something of the attachment of the faithful servant who loves his mistress. I often feel as if I ought to humble myself before her, as if my proper place were at her feet. She never can grow ugly, changed, or old to me. I accept everything, agree to everything, and worship her as she is.
„It is not merely a question of sorrow after the death of a beloved being, but of the reproaches she will apply to herself, thinking that if she had loved him more he might have clung more to his life.“
— Henryk Sienkiewicz, libro Without Dogma
13 November
Without Dogma (1891)
Contesto: It is not merely a question of sorrow after the death of a beloved being, but of the reproaches she will apply to herself, thinking that if she had loved him more he might have clung more to his life. Empty, trivial, and unjust reproaches, for she did everything that force of will could command, — she spurned my love and remained pure and faithful to him. But one must know that soul full of scruples as I know it, to gauge the depth of misery into which the news would plunge her, and how she would suspect herself, — asking whether his death did not correspond to some deeply hidden desire on her part for freedom and happiness; whether it did not gratify those wishes she had scarcely dared to form.
„The modern man is conscious of everything, and cannot find a remedy against anything.“
— Henryk Sienkiewicz, libro Without Dogma
10 November
Without Dogma (1891)
Contesto: Formerly character proved a strong curb for passions; in the present there is not much strength in character, and it grows less and less because of the prevailing scepticism, which is a decomposing element. It is like a bacillus breeding in the human soul; it destroys the resistant power against the physiological craving of the nerves, of nerves diseased. The modern man is conscious of everything, and cannot find a remedy against anything.
„If it be a great misfortune to love another man's wife, be she ever so commonplace, it is an infinitely greater misfortune to love a virtuous woman.“
— Henryk Sienkiewicz, libro Without Dogma
4 August
Without Dogma (1891)
Contesto: If it be a great misfortune to love another man's wife, be she ever so commonplace, it is an infinitely greater misfortune to love a virtuous woman. There is something in my relations to Aniela of which I never heard or read; there is no getting out of it, no end. A solution, whether it be a calamity or the fulfilment of desire, is something, but this is only an enchanted circle. If she remain immovable and I do not cease loving her, it will be an everlasting torment, and nothing else. And I have the despairing conviction that neither of us will give way.
