The King In Yellow Quotes
"Self-preservation is the first law, and the United States had to look on in helpless sorrow as Germany, Italy, Spain, and Belgium writhed in the throes of Anarchy, while Russia, watching from the Caucasus, stooped and bound them one by one."
"I stood for a long time absorbed in the changing expression of my own eyes. The mirror reflected a face which was like my own, but whiter, and so thin that I hardly recognized it."
"Then quickly turning to the military aid of the President's household, he said, 'I declare the Lethal Chamber open,' and again facing the vast crowd he cried in a clear voice: 'Citizens of New York and of the United States of America, through me the Government declares the Lethal Chamber to be open.'"
"I pray God will curse the writer, as the writer has cursed the world with this beautiful, stupendous creation, terrible in its simplicity, irresistible in its truth—a world which now trembles before the King in Yellow."
"The blood rushed to my head, but I only answered, 'A new broom sweeps clean.'"
"The Governor was finishing his reply to the short speech of the Surgeon-General. I heard him say: 'The laws prohibiting suicide and providing punishment for any attempt at self-destruction have been repealed. The Government has seen fit to acknowledge the right of man to end an existence which may have become intolerable to him, through physical suffering or mental despair.'"
"It’s that cursed cat," he said, "she attacked me while I was asleep. I believe she will kill me yet."
"I put on the screws now and then," he explained.
"Vance, this is Mr. Castaigne," said Mr. Wilde.
"You must renounce the crown to me, do you hear, to me."
"Let the nations rise and look upon their King!"
"Woe! woe to you who are crowned with the crown of the King in Yellow!"
"I have no idea why the veins and heart are tinted, but they always are."
"It is not your fault, Alec; don't grieve so if she loves you—"
"It was pleasant to be alive in the bright spring weather."
"The sense of breathless expectancy was suffocating."
"Instead of the agitation I had feared, I found myself able to paint there tranquilly."
"One truth the human soul finds hardest of all to learn: that it has nothing to fear."
"The one passion of my life lay buried in the sunlit forests of Brittany."
"I shrank from disclaiming responsibility for that thoughtless kiss."
"It is easy to enter, but sometimes they who enter never leave it."
"I love you. Your words are very dear to me. I love you."
"Win me," she said, but this time it was the body and soul which spoke in unison.
"Then I took her in my arms and kissed her on the lips, but all I could say was: 'Jeanne, Jeanne, Jeanne.'"
"Pray for the soul of the Demoiselle Jeanne d'Ys, who died in her youth for love of Philip, a stranger."
"The animal paused on the threshold, interrogative alert, ready for flight if necessary."
"Why should your mistress decorate you with an article most necessary to her at all times?"
"I could paint her,—not on canvas—for I should need shades and tones and hues and dyes more splendid than the iris of a splendid rainbow. I could only paint her with closed eyes, for in dreams alone can such colours as I need be found."
"For her eyes, I must have azure from skies untroubled by a cloud—the skies of dreamland."
"For her lips, roses from the palaces of slumberland, and for her brow, snow-drifts from mountains which tower in fantastic pinnacles to the moons."
"It is fortunate that we have tided over the dinner hour, for I have nothing to offer you for supper but what may be purchased with one silver franc."
"Cat, I have found out where your mistress lives. It is not very far away;—it is here, under this same leaky roof."
"They say she is idle and vain and pleasure-loving; they say she is hare-brained and reckless."
"The little sculptor on the ground floor, who was buying rolls from old Cabane, spoke to me to-night for the first time, although we have always bowed to each other."
"I am sure, Monsieur, that she is as good as she is beautiful."
"Be of Good Cheer, the Sullen Month will die, And a young Moon requite us by and by."
"I wish to share what I have, but I won't see it thrown out of the window."
"Artists don’t worm themselves into the service of the Public Defence where they do nothing but feed like rats on the people’s food!"
"Don’t stay here,—don’t believe in the Army of the Loire."
"That’s a nice clean trick," said Trent; "a whelp of your age! You’ll finish against a dead wall!"
"What does a sculptor usually talk about?" cried West, with a laugh.
"You know the story from the blackguard. You know the—the child is at his rooms. Get it, and take it to my own apartment, and if he is shot, I will provide a home for it."
"The events of the evening had shaken him terribly, but he would walk it off, forget, bury everything, and then go back to Sylvia."
"He was not alone, for even at his side they crowded, touched him, swarmed before him, beside him, behind him, pressed him back, seized, and bore him with them through the mist."
"The rifle was not heavy. Trent found it wonderfully manageable. Was the bayonet sharp? He tried it. Then a sudden longing, a fierce, imperative desire took possession of him."
"Pray for France, little one," he murmured, and she repeated with a pale smile: "For France and you, beau Monsieur."
"The colonel sat heavily upon his horse, his bullet-shaped head buried in the astrakan collar of his dolman, his fat legs sticking straight out in the stirrups."
"It ees a plaisir to you receive!" she cried. "Monsieur is Anglish? No? Americain? Off course."
"You have never seen a studio? Never. Nor a model? No. How funny," she said solemnly. Then they both laughed.
"I like you," she said slowly, "and we will see each other sometimes if you will."
"Indeed," she smiled, "I shall be well chaperoned, because you see we are under the protection of the gods themselves."
"Heaven alone knows why anyone puts up with your antics, but they all do and so do I."
"We shall be very happy in so bright a world."
"Is this the world? Then I have never known it."
"My friend, when a man speaks French as well as you do, and is also a friend of Monsieur Clifford, he will have no trouble in this studio."
"Take off your hat for them," said the latter, laughing.
"Out of the throng of passers-by, out of the world of yesterday, out of the millions passing, one has turned aside to me."
"I’m not a beauty," he mused, "but neither am I a hobgoblin."
"What does she mean by blushing at Selby? I never before saw her look at a fellow in my life,—neither has any one in the Quarter."
"And all the time he knew he was a fool and that infatuation is not love."
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