Background Image
...
We Are Accustomed To Use Our Eyes Only With The Memory Of What Other People Before Us Have Thought About The Object We Are Looking At.
-Guy De Maupassant
...
Please Wait....
Translating....

We Are Accustomed To

Guy De Maupassant
...
We Are Accustomed To Use Our Eyes Only With The Memory Of What Other People Before Us Have Thought About The Object We Are Looking At.

Understanding the Quote: "we are accustomed to use our eyes only with the memory of..."

This quote by Guy De Maupassant reflects deeply on the theme of memories. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Memories, Eye, People, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Guy de Maupassant interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Guy De Maupassant

Guy De Maupassant is celebrated for insightful thoughts on memories and eye. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

Views: 4
Topic
Memories
Eye
People
More From Guy De Maupassant
I Have Coveted Everything And Taken Pleasure In Nothing
Taken
Pleasure
Killing Is Decreed By Law But Nature Loves Eternal Youth. Whatever She Does, However Unconscious And Unfeeling The Act, She Seems To Cry Out: 'quick! Quick! Quick!' And The More She Destroys, The More She Is Renewed.
Law
Doe
Youth
Every Government Has As Much Of A Duty To Avoid War As A Ship's Captain Has To Avoid A Shipwreck.
Peace
War
Government
Patriotism Is A Kind Of Religion; It Is The Egg From Which Wars Are Hatched.
War
Patriotic
Eggs
You've Never Lived Until You've Almost Died. For Those Who Have Fought For It, Life Has A Flavor The Protected Shall Never Know.
Soldier
Flavor
Protected
And Taking Her Friend’s Hand, She Put It On Her Breast, On That Firm Round Covering Of A Woman’s Heart Which The Male Often Finds So Satisfying That He Makes No Attempt To Find What Lies Beneath It.
Lying
Heart
Hands
Breathing, Sleeping, Drinking, Eating, Working, Dreaming, Everything We Do Is Dying. To Live, In Fact, Is To Die.
Dream
Drinking
Sleep
In The East Men Know Panic, But They Do Not Know What Fright Is.
Men
East
Panic
The Past Attracts Me, The Present Frightens Me, Because The Future Is Death.
Fear
Past
Conversation. What Is It? A Mystery! It's The Art Of Never Seeming Bored, Of Touching Everything With Interest, Of Pleasing With Trifles, Of Being Fascinating With Nothing At All.
Art
Bored
Touching
To Lie About A Far Country Is Easy
Country
Lying
Easy
You'll Find That My Coquetry Is Quite Impartial, Which Allows Me To Keep My Friends.
Coquetry
My Friends
The Kiss Itself Is Immortal. It Travels From Lip To Lip, Century To Century, From Age To Age. Men And Women Garner These Kisses, Offer Them To Others And Then Die In Turn.
Kissing
Men
Age
I Said, 'if Other Beings Besides Us Exist On Earth, Why Didn't We Meet Them A Long Time Ago?
Long
Earth
Said
Whatever You Want To Say, There Is Only One Word To Express It, Only One Verb To Give It Movement, Only One Adjective To Qualify It.
Writing
Giving
Adjectives
There Is Only One Good Thing In Life, And That Is Love. And How You Misunderstand It! How You Spoil It! You Treat It As Something Solemn Like A Sacrament, Or Something To Be Bought, Like A Dress.
Things In Life
Dresses
Good Things
Military Men Are The Scourges Of The World.
Military
Men
World
The Essence Of Life Is The Smile Of Round Female Bottoms, Under The Shadow Of Cosmic Boredom.
Smile
Blessing
Essence
A Human Being - What Is A Human Being? Everything And Nothing. Through The Power Of Thought It Can Mirror Everything It Experiences. Through Memory And Knowledge It Becomes A Microcosm, Carrying The World Within Itself. A Mirror Of Things, A Mirror Of Facts. Each Human Being Becomes A Little Universe Within The Universe!
Memories
Mirrors
World
Everything Is False, Everything Is Possible, Everything Is Doubtful.
Doubt
Doubtful
Broad Daylight Does Not Encourage The Apprehension Of Horror.
Doe
Daylight
Horror
History, That Excitable And Unreliable Old Lady.
History
Old Lady
Unreliable
Life Is A Slope. As Long As You're Going Up You're Always Looking Towards The Top And You Feel Happy, But When You Reach It, Suddenly You Can See The Road Going Downhill And Death At The End Of It All. It's Slow Going Up And Quick Going Down.
Long
Life Is
Ends
Champagne... The Wine Of Kings, The King Of Wines
Kings
Wine
Champagne
Since Governments Take The Right Of Death Over Their People, It Is Not Astonishing If The People Should Sometimes Take The Right Of Death Over Governments.
Government
People
Politics
The Secret Is Not To Betray Your Ignorance. Just Maneuver, Avoid The Quicksands And Obstacles, And The Rest Can Be Found In A Dictionary.
Ignorance
Secret
Obstacles
Solitude Is Indeed Dangerous For A Working Intelligence. We Need To Have Around Us People Who Think And Speak. When We Are Alone For A Long Time We People The Void With Phantoms
Thinking
People
Long
Night Was A Very Different Matter. It Was Dense, Thicker Than The Very Walls, And It Was Empty, So Black, So Immense That Within It You Could Brush Against Appalling Things And Feel Roaming And Prowling Around A Strange, Mysterious Horror.
Wall
Night
Black
...a Strange Art – Music – The Most Poetic And Precise Of All The Arts, Vague As A Dream And Precise As Algebra.
Dream
Art
Strange
She Was A Sweet Girl But Not Really Pretty, A Rough Sketch Of A Woman With A Little Of Everything In Her, One Of Those Silhouettes Which Artists Draw In Three Strokes On The Tablecloth In A Café After Dinner, Between A Glass Of Brandy And A Cigarette. Nature Sometimes Turns Out Creatures Like That.
Girl
Sweet
Artist
I Told Myself: 'i Am Surrounded By Unknown Things.' I Imagined Man Without Ears, Suspecting The Existence Of Sound As We Suspect So Many Hidden Mysteries, Man Noting Acoustic Phenomena Whose Nature And Provenance He Cannot Determine. And I Grew Afraid Of Everything Around Me – Afraid Of The Air, Afraid Of The Night. From The Moment We Can Know Almost Nothing, And From The Moment That Everything Is Limitless, What Remains? Does Emptiness Actually Not Exist? What Does Exist In This Apparent Emptiness?
Night
Men
Air
The Only Certainty Is Death.
Certainty
There Are Some Delightful Places In This World Which Have A Sensual Charm For The Eyes. One Loves Them With A Physical Love. We People Who Are Attracted By The Countryside Cherish Fond Memories Of Certain Springs, Certain Woods, Certain Ponds, Certain Hills, Which Have Become Familiar Sights And Can Touch Our Hearts Like Happy Events. Sometimes Indeed The Memory Goes Back Towards A Forest Glade, Or A Spot On A River Bank Or An Orchard In Blossom, Glimpsed Only Once On A Happy Day, But Preserved In Our Heart.
Memories
Spring
Eye
Love Is Always Love, Come Whence It May. A Heart That Beats At Your Approach, An Eye That Weeps When You Go Away Are Things So Rare, So Sweet, So Precious That They Must Never Be Despised.
Sweet
Heart
Eye
We Live Always Under The Weight Of The Old And Odious Customs... Of Our Barbarous Ancestors.
Weight
Politics
Ancestor
Whether We Are Describing A King, An Assassin, A Thief, An Honest Man, A Prostitute, A Nun, A Young Girl, Or A Stallholder In A Market, It Is Always Ourselves That We Are Describing.
Girl
Kings
Writing
I Have Seen Mad People, And I Have Known Some Who Were Quite Intelligent, Lucid, Even Clear-sighted In Every Concern Of Life, Except On One Point. They Could Speak Clearly, Readily, Profoundly On Everything; Till Their Thoughts Were Caught In The Breakers Of Their Delusions And Went To Pieces There, Were Dispersed And Swamped In That Furious And Terrible Sea Of Fogs And Squalls Which Is Called Madness.
Intelligent
Fog
Sea
She Was The Temptress Who Had Ensnared The First Man, And Who Still Continued Her Work At Damnation; She Was The Being Who Is Feeble, Dangerous, Mysteriously Troubling. And Even More Than Her Body Of Perdition, He Hated Her Loving Soul.
Men
Soul
Body
The Glasses Were Half Full, Which Meant That The Guests Were Completely So
Wine
Glasses
Half
You Have The Army Of Mediocrities Followed By The Multitude Of Fools. As The Mediocrities And The Fools Always Form The Immense Majority, It Is Impossible For Them To Elect An Intelligent Government.
Army
Intelligent
Government
Great Minds That Are Healthy Are Never Considered Geniuses, While This Sublime Qualification Is Lavished On Brains That Are Often Inferior But Are Slightly Touched By Madness.
Healthy
Sublime
Brain
I Love The Night Passionately... I Love It With All My Senses: I Love To See It, I Love To Breathe It In, I Love To Open My Ears To Its Silence, I Love My Whole Body To Be Caressed By Its Blackness.
Night
Silence
Ears
Anguish Of Suspense Made Men Even Desire The Arrival Of Enemies.
Men
Enemy
Desire
A Lawful Kiss Is Never Worth As Much As A Stolen One.
Kissing
Stolen
A Man Forced To Spend His Life Without Ever Having The Right, Without Ever Finding The Time, To Shut Himself Up All Alone, No Matter Where, To Think, To Reflect, To Work, To Dream? Ah! My Dear Boy, A Key, The Key Of A Door Which One Can Lock This Is Happiness, Mark You, The Only Happiness!
Dream
Boys
Men
Whatever One Wishes To Say, There Is One Noun Only By Which To Express It, One Verb Only To Give It Life, One Adjective Only Which Will Describe It. One Must Search Until One Has Discovered Them, This Noun, This Verb, This Adjective, And Never Rest Content With Approximations, Never Resort To Trickery, However Happy, Or To Vulgarism, In Order To Dodge The Difficulty.
Order
Giving
Wish
The Great Artists Are Those Who Impose Their Personal Vision Upon Humanity.
Art
History
Humanity
I Love The Night Passionately. I Love It As I Love My Country, Or My Mistress, With An Instinctive, Deep, And Unshakeable Love. I Love It With All My Senses: I Love To See It, I Love To Breathe It In, I Love To Open My Ears To Its Silence, I Love My Whole Body To Be Caressed By Its Blackness. Skylarks Sing In The Sunshine, The Blue Sky, The Warm Air, In The Fresh Morning Light. The Owl Flies By Night, A Dark Shadow Passing Through The Darkness; He Hoots His Sinister, Quivering Hoot, As Though He Delights In The Intoxicating Black Immensity Of Space.
Country
Morning
Dark
There Are In France Some Fifty Thousand Young Men Of Good Birth And Fairly Well Off Who Are Encouraged To Live A Life Of Complete Idleness. They Must Either Cease To Exist Or Must Come To See That There Can Be No Happiness, No Health Even, Without Regular Daily Labor Of Some Sort... The Need Of Work Is In Me.
Men
Needs
Fifty
Ale, Not Beer, In A Pewter Mug Was Comme Il Faut, The Only Thing For A Gentleman Of Letters, Worthy Of The Name, To Drink.
Beer
Names
Gentleman
In Fact Living Is Dying.
Dying
Facts
A Sick Thought Can Devour The Body's Flesh More Than Fever Or Consumption.
Sick
Body
Flesh
I Told Myself 'everything Is A Being! The Shout That Passes Into The Air Is An Entity Like An Animal, Since It Is Born, Produces A Movement, And Is Again Transformed, In Order To Die. So The Fearful Mind That Believes In Incorporeal Beings Is Not Wrong. What Are They?
Believe
Animal
Air
We Breathe Love As We Breathe Air; We Hold It In Ourselves As We Hold Our Thoughts. Nothing More Exists For Us.
Air
Breathe
Our Thoughts
The English Have Only Three Sauces - A White One, A Brown One And A Yellow One, And None Of Them Have Any Flavor Whatever.
Food
Yellow
White
I Know Nothing More Enjoyable Than That Happy-go-lucky Wandering Life, In Which You Are Perfectly Free; Without Shackles Of Any Kind, Without Care, Without Preoccupation, Without Thought Even Of To-morrow. You Go In Any Direction You Please, Without Any Guide Save Your Fancy.
Life
Lucky
Care
I Entered Literary Life As A Meteor, And I Shall Leave It Like A Thunderbolt.
Meteors
Thunderbolts
It Is The Lives We Encounter That Make Life Worth Living.
Encounters
Life Worth Living
Worth Living
Of All The Passions, The Only One That Seems Respectable To Me Is The Passion For Food
Passion
Respectable
Seems
The Bed Comprehends Our Whole Life, For We Were Born In It, We Live In It, And We Shall Die In It
Bed
Born
Whole Life
To Love Very Much Is To Love Inadequately; We Love-that Is All. Love Cannot Be Modified Without Being Nullified. Love Is A Short Word But It Contains Everything. Love Means The Body, The Soul, The Life, The Entire Being. We Feel Love As We Feel The Warmth Of Our Blood, We Breathe Love As We Breathe The Air, We Hold It In Ourselves As We Hold Our Thoughts. Nothing More Exists For Us. Love Is Not A Word; It Is A Wordless State Indicated By Four Letters.
Love
Mean
Air
Love Always Has Its Price, Come Whence It May.
Love
May
Love Always
Those Men, Those Of Former Times, Had Soul And Eyes That In No Way Resemble Ours, And In Their Veins, Along With Their Blood, Flowed Something That Has Disappeared: Love And Admiration For The Beautiful.
Beautiful
Eye
Men
Abstinence Is The Worst Form Of Perversion.
Abstinence
Form
Worst
Legitimized Love Always Despises Its Easygoing Brother.
Brother
Despise
Love Always
It Is Better To Be Unhappy In Love Than Unhappy In Marriage, But Some People Manage To Be Both.
People
Unhappy
Unhappy Marriage
Words Dazzle And Deceive Because They Are Mimed By The Face. But Black Words On A White Page Are The Soul Laid Bare.
Life
White
Soul
We Breathe, Sleep, Drink, Eat, Work And Then Die! The End Of Life Is Death. What Do You Long For? Love? A Few Kisses And You Will Be Powerless. Money? What For? To Gratify Your Desires. Glory? What Coems After It All? Death! Death Alone Is Certain.
Sleep
Kissing
Long
To Contest An Author's Right To Create A Poetic Or Realistic Work Is To Want To Force Him To Change His Temperament, Challenge His Originality, Refuse To Allow Him To Use The Eye And The Intelligence Nature Has Given Him.
Eye
Challenges
Use
I Go To Bed, And I Wait For Sleep As A Man Might Wait For The Executioner. I Wait For Its Coming With Dread, And My Heart Beats And My Legs Tremble, While My Whole Body Shivers Beneath The Warmth Of The Bedclothes, Until The Moment When I Suddenly Fall Asleep, As A Man Throws Himself Into A Pool Of Stagnant Water In Order To Drown. I Do Not Feel This Perfidious Sleep Coming Over Me As I Used To, But A Sleep Which Is Close To Me And Watching Me, Which Is Going To Seize Me By The Head, To Close My Eyes And Annihilate Me.
Fall
Sleep
Eye
The Public Is Composed Of Numerous Groups Whose Cry To Us Writers Is: 'comfort Me.' 'amuse Me.' 'touch My Sympathies.' 'make Me Sad.' 'make Me Dream.' 'make Me Laugh.' 'make Me Shiver.' 'make Me Weep.' 'make Me Think.'
Dream
Thinking
Laughing
Were A Man To Spend Only One Day In Sicily And Ask, "what Must One See?" I Would Answer Him Without Hesitation, "taormina." It Is Only A Landscape, But A Landscape Where You Find Everything On Earth That Seems Made To Seduce The Eyes, The Mind And The Imagination.
Eye
Men
Imagination
The Simplest Of Women Are Wonderful Liars Who Can Extricate Themselves From The Most Difficult Dilemmas With A Skill Bordering On Genius.
Liars
Lying
Skills
Travel, Like Dreams, Is A Door That Opens From The Real World Into A World That Is Yet To Be Discovered
Dream
Real
Doors
How Weak Our Mind Is; How Quickly It Is Terrified And Unbalanced As Soon As We Are Confronted With A Small, Incomprehensible Fact. Instead Of Dismissing The Problem With: "we Do Not Understand Because We Cannot Find The Cause," We Immediately Imagine Terrible Mysteries And Supernatural Powers.
Mind
Facts
Causes
You Must Render: Never Report.
Crafts
Reports
One Sometimes Weeps Over One's Illusions With As Much Bitterness As Over A Death.
Bitterness
Sometimes
Illusion
Our Memory Is A More Perfect World Than The Universe: It Gives Back Life To Those Who No Longer Exist.
Memories
Giving
Perfect
There Is Only One Good Thing In Life, And That Is Love.
Things In Life
Good Things
Good Things In Life
Sometimes Our Thoughts Turn Back Toward A Corner In A Forest, Or The End Of A Bank, Or An Orchard Powdered With Flowers, Seen But A Single Time On Some Happy Day, Yet Remaining In Our Hearts And Leaving In Soul And Body An Unappeased Desire Which Is Not To Be Forgotten, A Feeling That We Have Just Rubbed Elbows With Happiness.
Happiness
Flower
Heart
She Realized For The First Time That Two People Can Never Reach Each Others Deepest Feelings And Instincts, That They Spend Their Lives Side By Side, Linked It May Be, But Not Mingled, And That Each One's Inmost Being Must Go Through Life Eternally Alone.
Two
People
Feelings
We Are Accustomed To Use Our Eyes Only With The Memory Of What Other People Before Us Have Thought About The Object We Are Looking At.
Memories
Eye
People
If I Could, I Would Stop The Passage Of Time. But Hour Follows On Hour, Minute On Minute, Each Second Robbing Me Of A Morsel Of Myself For The Nothing Of Tomorrow. I Shall Never Experience This Moment Again.
Tomorrow
Moments
Hours
To Avoid Each Other, Their Eyes Had Developed An Amazing Mobility With All The Cunning Of Enemies Fearful Of Meeting Each Other Head On.
Eye
Enemy
Mobility
War! When I But Think Of This Word, I Feel Bewildered, As Though They Were Speaking To Me Of Sorcery, Of The Inquisition, Of A Distant, Finished, Abominable, Monstrous, Unnatural Thing. When They Speak To Us Of Cannibals, We Smile Proudly, As We Proclaim Our Superiority To These Savages. Who Are The Real Savages? Those Who Struggle In Order To Eat Those Whom They Vanquish, Or Those Who Struggle Merely To Kill?
Peace
Real
War
Trending Author
Ulrike Meinhof
Kalpana Chawla
Arne Duncan
Jason Isaacs
Marjory Stoneman Douglas
Ludacris
Category
Information