François-Auguste-René de Chateaubriand Quotes

Aristocracy has three successive ages, — the age of superiorities, the age of privileges, and the age of vanities; having passed out of the first, it degenerates in the second, and dies away in the third.

La vie me sied mal; le mort m'ira peut-être mieux.

One does not learn how to die by killing others.

L’arbre tombe feuille à feuille : si les hommes contemplaient chaque matin ce qu’ils ont perdu la veille, ils s’apercevraient bien de leur pauvreté.

The forces of nature and the feebleness of man: a weed often pierces the solid marble of those tombs, that all the dead, once so powerful, cannot now remove.

The eighteenth century, a century of intellectual rather than material action, would not have succeeded in changing the laws so rapidly had it not stumbled on a suitable vehicle: the parliaments, and most notably the parliament of Paris, became the instruments of a philosophical system.

You are not superior just because you see the world in an odious light.

Un jour le Meschacebé, encore assez près de sa source, se lassa de n'être qu'un limpide ruisseau. Il demande des neiges aux montagnes, des eaux aux torrents, des pluies aux tempêtes, il franchit ses rives, et désole ses bords charmants. L'orgueilleux ruisseau s'applaudit d'abord de sa puissance; mais voyant que tout devenait désert sur son passage; qu'il coulait, abandonné dans la solitude; que ses eaux étaient toujours troublées, il regretta l'humble lit que lui avait creusé la nature, les oiseaux, les fleurs, les arbres et les ruisseaux, jadis modestes compagnons de son paisible cours.

Washington went to his grave before even the smallest bit of fame attached itself to my footsteps; I passed before him as the most anonymous entity. He was in all his glory, I in all my obscurity, and I doubt whether my name stayed more than a day in his memory. I am nevertheless happy that his gaze once fell upon me. I would feel warmed by it for the rest of my life. There is a virtue in the gaze of a great man.

"Sincero y veraz como soy, me es imposible abrir mi corazón: mi alma tiende sin cesar a cerrarse; nunca lo digo todo y solamente he confesado mi vida entera en estas Memorias. No hablo nunca con nadie "de paso" de mis intereses, de mis intenciones, de mis trabajos, de mis ideas, de mis afectos de mis alegrías, de mis tristezas, pues estoy convencido del profundo tedio que se causa a los demás hablándoles de uno mismo."

I was simply occupied with tailoring myself to society's standard.

Aussitôt qu'une pensée vraie est entrée dans notre esprit, elle jette une lumière qui nous fait voir une foule d'autres objets que nous n'apercevions pas auparavant.

Vedi, quant'anche mi lasciassi andare a una follia, non sono sicuro che domani ti amerò. Non credo a me stesso. Non mi conosco. La passione mi divora e io sono pronto a pugnalarmi o a ridere. Ti adoro, ma tra un momento più di te amerò il rumore del vento tra queste rocce, una nuvola in cielo, una foglia che cade. Poi pregherò Dio piangendo, poi invocherò il Nulla. Vuoi colmarmi di delizie? Fa' una cosa. Sii mia, poi lascia che ti trapassi il cuore e beva tutto il tuo sangue. E allora! avrai adesso il coraggio di avventurarti con me in questa tebaide?

The heart feels, the head compares
Η καρδιά αισθάνεται. Ο νους συγκρίνει
Translation by Irene Doura-Kavadia

...e io, fermo ai limiti della vita, conto le stelle, non faccio affidamento su alcuna e attendo l'aurora...