François-Auguste-René de Chateaubriand Quotes

[L]ike a kingfisher I have made my nest on the waves.

On n'est point un homme supérieur parce qu'on aperçoit le monde sous un jour odieux. On ne hait les hommes et la vie que faute de voir assez loin.

Bisogna andare molto indietro nel tempo per trovare l'origine del mio tormento, bisogna riandare a quegli albori della mia giovinezza in cui mi creai un simulacro di donna per adorarla. Mi sfinii con quella creatura immaginaria, poi vennero gli amori reali e con essi non raggiunsi mai quella felicità immaginaria di cui portavo in me l'ideale. Ho saputo cosa significa vivere per una sola idea e con una sola idea; isolarsi in un sentimento, perdere di vista l'universo e porre tutta la propria esistenza in un sorriso, in una parola, in uno sguardo.

if man is a mere mass of matter, there is in reality neither vice nor virtue, and of course morality is a mere sham

dacă omul este o simplă masă de materie, în realitate nu există nici viciu, nici virtute și, desigur, moralitatea este o simplă farsă

How many other friends I will never meet again! Every night as he goes to bed, a man can count his losses; it’s only his years that do not leave him, though they pass.

La douleur n'est pas une affection qu'on épuise comme le plaisir.

I am Bourbon as a matter of honour, royalist according to reason and conviction, and republican by taste and character.

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

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.

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.

Il n'est qu'un bien, c'est le tendre plaisir.
Quelle immortalité vaut une nuit heureuse ?
Pour tes baisers je vendrais l'avenir.

This self-righteous arrogance led me to suppose that the religious mind suffered from a deficiency, which is exactly the deficiency suffered by the philosophical mind: a limited intelligence thinks it can see everything because it keeps its eyes open; a superior intelligence consents to close it eyes, for it perceives that everything is within.

chance could not have formed the world, because there could have been but one single favorable chance against innumerable impossibilities

șansa nu ar fi putut forma lumea, deoarece nu ar fi putut exista decât o singură șansă favorabilă împotriva nenumăratelor imposibilități

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

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