37 Quotes by François-René de Chateaubriand

There is no power but in conviction.

An original writer is not one who imitates nobody, but one whom nobody can imitate.

Le passé et le présent sont deux statues incomplètes: l'une a été retirée toute mutilée du débris des âges, l'autre n'a pas encore reçu sa perfection de l'avenir.

Purgatory surpasses heaven and hell in poetry, because it represents a future and the others do not.

ô enfance du coeur humain qui ne vieillit jamais! voilà donc à quel degré de puérilité notre superbe raison peut descendre! Et encore est-il vrai que bien des hommes attachent leur destinée à des choses d'aussi peu de valeur que mes feuilles de saule.

A moral character is attached to autumnal scenes; the leaves falling like our years, the flowers fading like our hours, the clouds fleeting like our illusions, the light diminishing like our intelligence, the sun growing colder like our affections, the rivers becoming frozen like our lives--all bear secret relations to our destinies.

Justice is the bread of the nation, it is always hungry for it.

A man may understand the power of a king without being a king himself; but he cannot understand the divinity without being God

if man is a mere mass of matter, there is in reality neither vice nor virtue, and of course morality is a mere shamdacă omul este o simplă masă de materie, în realitate nu există nici viciu, nici virtute și, desigur, moralitatea este o simplă farsă