„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
„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.
„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.
„My position is such that there is no necessity for me to enter into competition with struggling humanity.“
— Henryk Sienkiewicz, libro Without Dogma
"Rome, 9 January"
Without Dogma (1891)
Contesto: My position is such that there is no necessity for me to enter into competition with struggling humanity. As to expensive and ruinous pleasures, I am a sceptic who knows how much they are worth, or rather, knows that they are not worth anything.
„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.
„It is an altogether wrong idea that the modern product of civilization is less susceptible to love.“
— Henryk Sienkiewicz, libro Without Dogma
10 November
Without Dogma (1891)
Contesto: It is an altogether wrong idea that the modern product of civilization is less susceptible to love. I sometimes think it is the other way.
„No God has promised me immortality; hence no surprise meets me.“
— 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.
„Pliny declares, as I hear, that he does not believe in the gods, but he believes in dreams; and perhaps he is right.“
— Henryk Sienkiewicz, libro Quo vadis?
Petronius, as depicted in the novel, speaking to Marcus Vinicius,<!-- entirely fictional character, NOT the historical figure. --> in Ch. 1
Quo Vadis (1895)
Contesto: Pliny declares, as I hear, that he does not believe in the gods, but he believes in dreams; and perhaps he is right. My jests do not prevent me from thinking at times that in truth there is only one deity, eternal, creative, all-powerful, Venus Genetrix. She brings souls together; she unites bodies and things. Eros called the world out of chaos. Whether he did well is another question; but, since he did so, we should recognize his might, though we are free not to bless it.
„The howls of Cerberus, though resembling thy music, will be less offensive to me, for I have never been the friend of Cerberus, and I need not be ashamed of his howling.“
— Henryk Sienkiewicz, libro Quo vadis?
Letter of Petronius to Nero, Ch. 73
Quo Vadis (1895)
Contesto: Rome stuffs its ears when it hears thee; the world reviles thee. I can blush for thee no longer, and I have no wish to do so. The howls of Cerberus, though resembling thy music, will be less offensive to me, for I have never been the friend of Cerberus, and I need not be ashamed of his howling.
„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.
