Alfred de Vigny > Quotes

“I have a private theory, Sir, that there are no heroes and no monsters in this world. Only children should be allowed to use these words”
― Alfred de Vigny, Stello

“I admit that I myself am far from having a complete command of every topic I touch on, but my knowledge of my subject is always greater than the interest or the understanding of my auditors. You see, there is one very good thing about mankind; the mediocre masses make very few demands of the mediocrities of a higher order, submitting stupidly and cheerfully to their guidance”
― Alfred de Vigny, Stello

“The loveliest Muse in the world does not feed her owner; these girls make fine mistresses but terrible wives”
― Alfred de Vigny, Stello

“Hope is the greatest madness. What can we expect of a world that we enter with the assurance of seeing our fathers and mothers die? A world where, if two beings love each other and give their lives to each other, both can be sure that one will watch the other perish?”
― Alfred de Vigny, Stello

“To hold power has always meant to manipulate idiots and circumstances; and those circumstances and those idiots, tossed together, bring about those coincidences to which even the greatest men confess they owe most of their fame”
― Alfred de Vigny, Stello

“The first among mankind will always be those who make something imperishable out of a sheet of paper, a canvas, a piece of marble, or a few sounds”
― Alfred de Vigny, Stello

“Oh, I have a habit of letting myself be lectured on the things I know best. I like to see if they are understood in the same way I understand; for there are many ways of knowing the same thing”
― Alfred de Vigny, Stello

“Those intellectuals are our natural enemies; the only kind who are worth anything are the musicians and the dancers: they don’t insult anybody with their performances, and they neither sing nor dance politics. So I like them; but don’t let me hear a word about the rest”
― Alfred de Vigny, Stello

“Εσύ μόνο μου φάνηκες σαν εκείνο που πάντα κανείς αναζητά”
― Alfred de Vigny, Eloa, or the Sister of the Angels

“Observe this fact: in the history of mankind, every ruler who has lacked personal greatness has been forced to compensate for the deficiency by setting up the executioner at his right hand like a guardian angel”
― Alfred de Vigny, Stello

“One is always a good master when one isn’t the master”
― Alfred de Vigny, Stello

“We have also set up for them an edifying project for a continuous mitigation of their own tyranny, ascribing to them an unshakeable faith in the triumph of virtue, as well as in the moral justification of their crimes. These are the theories of well-meaning children who see everything in black or white, dream of nothing but angels or demons, and have no idea of the incredible number of hypocritical masks of every color and shape and size which men use to conceal their features when they have passed the age of devotion to ideals and have abandoned themselves unrestrainedly to their egotistic desires”
― Alfred de Vigny, Stello

“Silence alone is great; all else is weakness.”
― Alfred de Vigny

“A calm despair, without angry convulsions or reproaches directed at heaven, is the essence of wisdom.”
― Alfred de Vigny

“Not one little fellow need fear that he will be forbidden to pluck his shining grape from the cluster of political Power, that fruit reputed to be so full of wealth and glory. Can’t every gang become a club? and every club an assembly? an assembly, a convention? a convention, a senate? and isn’t a senate meant to rule? And what senate ever ruled without a man to rule it? And what did it all require? – Daring! – Aha! Well said! – What! is that all it takes? – Yes, all! The ones who have arrived say so. – Then courage, numskulls, give tongue and run for it! – That’s how it’s done”
― Alfred de Vigny, Stello

“History is a novel whose author is the people.”
― Alfred de Vigny

“À voir ce que l’on fut sur terre et ce qu'on laisse
Seul le silence est grand; tout le reste est faiblesse.”
― Alfred de Vigny

“Le Silence est la Poésie meme pour moi.”
― Vigny, Alfred de

“Quand on voir ce qu'on fut sur terre et ce qu'on lassie/ Seul le silence est grand tout le reste est faiblesse.”
― Vigny, Alfred de

“History is a novel whose author is the people”
― Alfred Devigny

“La vie est trop courte pour que nous en perdions une part précieuse à nous contrefaire.”
― Alfred de Vigny, Servitude Et Grandeur Militaires: Laurette ou le Cachet Rouge; La Veillée de Vincennes; La Canne de Jonc (Classic Reprint)

“Le Silence est la Poésie même pour moi.”
― Vigny, Alfred de