François-Auguste-René de Chateaubriand Quotes

A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and his play; his labour and his leisure; his mind and his body; his education and his recreation. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence through whatever he is doing, and leaves others to determine whether he is working or playing. To himself, he always appears to be doing both.

There and then I promptly resolved to end, in rural exile, a career scarcely begun, in which I had already consumed centuries.

Cette société, que j'ai remarquée la première dans ma vie, est aussi la première qui ait disparu à mes yeux. J'ai vu la mort entrer sous ce toit de paix et de bénédiction, le rendre peu à peu solitaire, fermer une chambre et puis une autre qui ne se rouvrait plus. J'ai vu ma grand'mère forcée de renoncer à son quadrille, faute des partners accoutumés; j'ai vu diminuer le nombre de ces constantes amies, jusqu'au jour où mon aïeule tomba la dernière. Elle et sa sœur s'étaient promis de s'entre-appeler aussitôt que l'une aurait devancé l'autre; elles se tinrent parole, et madame de Bedée ne survécut que peu de mois à mademoiselle de Boisteilleul. Je suis peut-être le seul homme au monde qui sache que ces personnes ont existé. Vingt fois, depuis cette époque, j'ai fait la même observation; vingt fois des sociétés se sont formées et dissoutes autour de moi. Cette impossibilité de durée et de longueur dans les liaisons humaines, cet oubli profond qui nous suit, cet invincible silence qui s'empare de notre tombe et s'étend de là sur notre maison, me ramènent sans cesse à la nécessité de l'isolement. Toute main est bonne pour nous donner le verre d'eau dont nous pouvons avoir besoin dans la fièvre de la mort. Ah! qu'elle ne nous soit pas trop chère! car comment abandonner sans désespoir la main que l'on a couverte de baisers et que l'on voudrait tenir éternellement sur son cœur?

Men of the trident have some games handed down to them by their ancestors: when you cross the Line, you must be “baptized.” The same ceremony takes place in the Tropics as on the banks of Newfoundland, and, whatever the locale, the leader of the masquerade is always “the Old Man of the Tropics.” Tropical and dropsical are synonymous to sailors: the Old Man of the Tropics therefore has an enormous paunch. Even under the tropical sun, he is outfitted in all the sheepskins and fur coats that the crew can find. He sits crouching on the maintop, bellowing from time to time like a wild animal. Everyone stares up at him. Then he starts climbing down the shrouds, heavy as a bear and staggering like Silenus. When he lands on deck, he roars some more, leaps, seizes a pail, fills it with water from the sea, and pours it over the head of anyone who has never crossed the Line or reached the icy latitude. You may flee below deck, leap onto the hatches, or shinny up the masts, but Old Man Tropic is always after you. It all ends with the sailors getting a large sum of drink money.

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.

Quanto durerebbe se fosse vero? il tempo di stringerti tra le braccia. La gioventù rende bello tutto, persino l'infelicità. Incanta quando con i riccioli di una chioma bruna può asciugare le lacrime man mano che scorrono sulle guance. Ma la vecchiaia rende brutta persino la felicità; nell'infelicità è ancora peggio: i radi capelli bianchi che restano sulla testa calva di un uomo non saranno mai abbastanza lunghi da asciugare le lacrime che cadono dai suoi occhi.

Taken collectively, the people are a poet, at once author and ardent actor of the part they play, or the part they are made to play. Their excesses come not so much from instinctual or inborn cruelty as from the unpredictable delirium of a crowd intoxicated by spectacles,

men don't allow themselves to be killed for their interest, they allow themselves to be killed for their passion

İnsanın bir tek ve hep aynı yaşamı yoktur.Peş peşe eklenen birçok yaşamı vardır ve çektiği acıların nedeni de budur.

Soy enemigo de todos los libros, y si pudiera destruir los míos, no dejaría de hacerlo.

Vous qui aimez la gloire ; soignez votre tombeau ; couchez-vous y bien ; tâchez d'y faire bonne figure, car vous y resterez.

Memory is often the attribute of stupidity; it generally belongs to heavy spirits whom it makes even heavier by the baggage it loads them down with.

My mother, Apolline de Bedée, endowed with great wit and a prodigious imagination, was formed by reading Fénelon, Racine, and Madame de Sévigné. She was nourished on anecdotes of the Court of Louis XIV and knew all of Cyrus by heart. A small woman of large features, dark-haired and ugly, her elegant manners and lively disposition were at odds with my father’s rigidity and calm. Loving society as much as he loved solitude, as exuberant and animated as he was expressionless and cold, she possessed no taste not antagonistic to the tastes of her husband.

Our illusions have no limits; we taste a thousand times the bitterness of the chalice and, nevertheless, we return to bring our lips to its edge.

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