Top 15 Charles-Augustin Sainte-Beuve Quotes

...I can savor a work, but it is difficult for me to judge it independently from the author, and I would gladly say, as is the tree, so is the fruit.

...je puis goûter une œuvre, mais il m'est difficile de la juger indépendamment de la connaissance de l'homme même, et je dirais volontiers: tel arbre, tel fruit.

It has often passed through my mind, says Gourville, that men have their properties almost as herbs, and that their happiness consists in having been destined or [being] destined for the things for which they were born.

Il m'a souvent passe par l'esprit, dit Gourville, que les hommes ont leurs proprietes a peu pres commes les herbes, et que leur bonheur consiste d'avoir ete destines ou de s'etre destines eux-memes aux choses pour lesquelles ils etaient nes.

On “the phenomenon of grace”. “For the soul arrives therebye at a certain fixed and invincible state, a state which is genuinely heroic, and from out of which the greatest deeds it ever performs are executed”.

A philosophical thought has probably not attained all its sharpness and all its illumination until it is expressed in French

Le silence seul est le souverain mépris.

Most often we are judging not others, but rather our own faculties in others.

Le plus souvent nous ne jugeons pas les autres, mais nous jugeons nos propres facultés dans les autres.

To lend freshness to things known, to spread knowledge of things new; an excellent program for a critic.

Renouveler les choses connues, vulgariser les choses neuves: un bon programme pour un critique.

Since it is necessary to have enemies, let us endeavour to have those who do us honour.

Puisqu'il faut avoir des ennemis, tâchons d'en avoir qui nous fassent honneur.

Let us beware of irony when making judgements. Of all the dispositions of the mind, irony is the least intelligent.

Gardons-nous de l'ironie en jugeant. De toutes les dispositions de l'esprit, l'ironie est la moins intelligente.