François-René de Chateaubriand > Quotes

“An original writer is not one who imitates nobody, but one whom nobody can imitate.”
― François-René de Chateaubriand, The Genius of Christianity or the Spirit and Beauty of the Christian Religion

“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.”
― François-René de Chateaubriand, Mémoires d'Outre-Tombe

“Every man carries within himself a world made up of all that he has seen and loved; and it is to this world that he returns, incessantly, though he may pass through and seem to inhabit a world quite foreign to it.”
― François-René de Chateaubriand

“A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and his play; his labor 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.”
― Francois Auguste De Chateaubriand

“You are not superior just because you see the world in an odious light.”
― François-René de Chateaubriand

“Alexander created cities everywhere he passed: I have left dreams everywhere I have trailed my life.”
― François-René de Chateaubriand, Mémoires d'Outre-Tombe

“A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between her work and her play; her labor and her leisure; her mind and her body; her education and her recreation. She hardly knows which is which. She simply pursues her vision of excellence through whatever she is doing, and leaves others to determine if she is working or playing. To herself, she always appears to be doing both.”
― Francois Rene De Chateaubriand

“One is not, my dear sir, a superior man merely because one sees the world in an odious light. One only hates mankind and life itself through failing to look deeply enough.”
― Chateaubriand, Rene

“Quand on parle des vices d’un homme, si on vous dit : “Tout le monde le dit” ne le croyez pas ; si l’on parle de ses vertus en vous disant encore : “Tout le monde le dit”, croyez-le.”
― Chateaubriand

“Justice is the bread of the nation, it is always hungry for it.”
― François-René de Chateaubriand

“Il y a des temps où l’on ne doit dépenser le mépris qu’avec économie, à cause du grand nombre de nécessiteux.”
― François-René de Chateaubriand, Mémoires d'Outre-Tombe

“Imagination is rich, abundant, full of marvels, existence poor, dry, disenchanted. One inhabits, with a full heart, an empty world.”
― François-René de Chateaubriand

“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.”
― François-René de Chateaubriand, René

“Hesitating, at the threshold of various illusory paths of life, I considered them one by one, without daring to pursue any one of them.”
― Chateaubriand, Rene

“The original writer is not he who refrains from imitating others, but he who can be imitated by none.”
― Francois-Rene De Chateaubriand

“There is no power but in conviction.”
― François-René de Chateaubriand, Génie Du Christianisme, 1

“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.”
― Francois Auguste Rene Chateaubriand

“Brothers in one great family, children lose their common features only when they lose their innocence, which is the same everywhere. Then the passions, modified by climate, government and customs, differentiate the nations; the human race ceases to speak and hear the same language: society is the true tower of Babel.”
― François-René de Chateaubriand, Mémoires d'Outre-Tombe

“Purgatory surpasses heaven and hell in poetry, because it represents a future and the others do not.”
― François-René de Chateaubriand, Mémoires d'Outre-Tombe

“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.”
― Chateaubriand

“Si quelques heures font une grande différence dans le cœur de l’homme, faut-il s’en étonner ? Il n’y a qu’une minute de la vie à la mort.”
― Chateaubriand

“La vie me sied mal; le mort m'ira peut-être mieux.”
― François-René de Chateaubriand, Mémoires d'Outre-Tombe

“[L]ike a kingfisher I have made my nest on the waves.”
― François-René de Chateaubriand, Mémoires d'Outre-Tombe

“Life is spent hovering round our tomb. Our various sicknesses are but the winds which carry us more or less near to the haven. … Death is our friend, nevertheless we do not recognise it as such, because it presents itself to us under a mask, and that mask inspires us with terror.”
― François-René de Chateaubriand, Mémoires d'Outre-Tombe

“Spring, in Brittany, is milder than spring in Paris, and bursts into flower three weeks earlier. The five birds that herald its appearance—the swallow, the oriole, the cuckoo, the quail, and the nightingale—arrive with the breezes that refuge in the bays of the Armorican peninsula.[28] The earth is covered over with daisies, pansies, jonquils, daffodils, hyacinths, buttercups, and anemones, like the wastelands around San Giovanni of Laterano and the Holy Cross of Jerusalem in Rome. The clearings are feathered with tall and elegant ferns; the fields of gorse and broom blaze with flowers that one may take at first glance for golden butterflies. The hedges, along which strawberries, raspberries, and violets grow, are adorned with hawthorn, honeysuckle, and brambles whose brown, curving shoots burst forth with magnificent fruits and leaves. All the world teems with bees and birds; hives and nests interrupt the child’s every footstep. In certain sheltered spots, the myrtle and the rose-bay flourish in the open air, as in Greece; figs ripen, as in Provence; and every apple tree, bursting with carmine flowers, looks like the big bouquet of a village bride.”
― François-René de Chateaubriand, Memoirs from Beyond the Grave: 1768-1800

“Cependant mon père fut atteint d'une maladie qui le conduisit en peu de jours au tombeau. II expira dans mes bras. J'appris à connaître la mort sur les lèvres de celui qui m'avait donné la vie. Cette impression fut grande; elle dure encore. C'est la première fois que l'immortalité de l'âme s'est présentée clairement à mes yeux. Je ne pus croire que ce corps inanimé était en moi l'auteur de la pensée: je sentis qu'elle me devait venir d'une autre source; et dans une sainte douleur qui approchait de la joie, j'espérai me rejoindre un jour à l'esprit de mon père.”
― François-René de Chateaubriand

“I was simply occupied with tailoring myself to society's standard.”
― François-René de Chateaubriand, René

“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.”
― François-René de Chateaubriand, René

“Je sais fort bien que je ne suis qu'une machine à faire des livres.”
― François-René de Chateaubriand

“Il n'est qu'un bien, c'est le tendre plaisir.
Quelle immortalité vaut une nuit heureuse ?
Pour tes baisers je vendrais l'avenir.”
― François-René de Chateaubriand