FranÃ§ois-RenÃ© de Chateaubriand famous quotes

Last updated: Sep 5, 2024

Forests precede civilizations and deserts follow them.
-- FranÃ§ois-RenÃ© de Chateaubriand

#Civilization #Desert #Forests
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.
-- FranÃ§ois-RenÃ© de Chateaubriand

#Men #World #May
There is nothing beautiful or sweet or great in life that is not mysterious.
-- FranÃ§ois-RenÃ© de Chateaubriand

#Beautiful #Sweet #Mysterious
Atheism can benefit no class of people; neither the unfortunate, whom it bereaves of hope, nor the prosperous, whose joys it renders insipid, nor the soldier, of whom it makes a coward, nor the woman whose beauty and sensibility it mars, nor the mother, who has a son to lose, nor the rulers of men, who have no surer pledge of the fidelity of their subjects than religion.
-- FranÃ§ois-RenÃ© de Chateaubriand

#Mother #Son #Men
I value in the cat the independent and almost ungrateful spirit which prevents her from attaching herself to any one, the indifference with which she passes from the salon to the housetop. When we caress her, she stretches herself and arches her back responsively; but this is because she feels an agreeable sensation, not because she takes a silly satisfaction, like the dog, in faithfully loving a thankless master. The cat lives alone, has no need of society, obeys only when she pleases, pretends to sleep that she may see more clearly, and scratches everything on which she can lay her paw.
-- FranÃ§ois-RenÃ© de Chateaubriand

#Dog #Silly #Sleep
My downfall made a great noise: those who appeared most satisfied criticized the manner of it.
-- FranÃ§ois-RenÃ© de Chateaubriand

#Noise #Made #Downfall
Music is the child of prayer, the companion of religion.
-- FranÃ§ois-RenÃ© de Chateaubriand

#Music #Prayer #Children
The heart feels, the head compares.
-- FranÃ§ois-RenÃ© de Chateaubriand

#Heart #Compare #Feels
Forests were the first temples of the Divinity, and it is in the forests that men have grasped the first idea of architecture.
-- FranÃ§ois-RenÃ© de Chateaubriand

#Men #Ideas #Divinity
Something you consider bad may bring out your child's talents; something you consider good may stifle them.
-- FranÃ§ois-RenÃ© de Chateaubriand

#Children #May #Talent
Let us not disdain glory too much; nothing is finer, except virtue. The height of happiness would be to unite both in this life.
-- FranÃ§ois-RenÃ© de Chateaubriand

#Would Be #Height #Too Much
Justice is the bread of the nation; it is always hungry for it.
-- FranÃ§ois-RenÃ© de Chateaubriand

#Justice #Bread #Hungry
We must not always try to plumb the depths of the human heart; the truths it contains are among those that are best seen in half-light or in perspective.
-- FranÃ§ois-RenÃ© de Chateaubriand

#Heart #Light #Perspective
Perfect works are rare, because they must be produced at the happy moment when taste and genius unite; and this rare conjuncture, like that of certain planets, appears to occur only after the revolution of several cycles, and only lasts for an instant.
-- FranÃ§ois-RenÃ© de Chateaubriand

#Perfect #Genius #Lasts
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.
-- FranÃ§ois-RenÃ© de Chateaubriand

#Meaningful #Art #Play
An original writer is not one who imitates nobody, but one whom nobody can imitate.
-- FranÃ§ois-RenÃ© de Chateaubriand

#Writing #Originality
Alexander created cities everywhere he passed: I have left dreams everywhere I have trailed my life.
-- FranÃ§ois-RenÃ© de Chateaubriand

#Dream #Cities
As soon as a true thought has entered our mind, it gives a light which makes us see a crowd of other objects which we have never perceived before.
-- FranÃ§ois-RenÃ© de Chateaubriand

#Knowledge #Light #Giving
The original writer is not he who refrains from imitating others, but he who can be imitated by none.
-- FranÃ§ois-RenÃ© de Chateaubriand

#Imitating Others #Refrain
The cat lives alone, has no need of society, obeys only when she pleases, pretends to sleep that she may see more clearly, and scratches everything on which she can lay her paw.
-- FranÃ§ois-RenÃ© de Chateaubriand

#Sleep #Cat #Scratches
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.
-- FranÃ§ois-RenÃ© de Chateaubriand

#Flower #Fall #Character
One is not superior merely because one sees the world as odious.
-- FranÃ§ois-RenÃ© de Chateaubriand

#World
One does not learn how to die by killing others.
-- FranÃ§ois-RenÃ© de Chateaubriand

#Doe #Killing
Every institution goes through three stages utility, privilege, and abuse.
-- FranÃ§ois-RenÃ© de Chateaubriand

#Abuse #Three #Privilege
In living literature no person is a competent judge but of works written in his own language . I have expressed my opinion concerning a number of English writers; it is very possible that I may be mistaken, that my admiration and my censure may be equally misplaced, and that my conclusions may appear impertinent and ridiculous on the other side of the Channel.
-- FranÃ§ois-RenÃ© de Chateaubriand

#Numbers #Judging #Sides
I am Bourbon as a matter of honour , royalist according to reason and conviction, and republican by taste and character .
-- FranÃ§ois-RenÃ© de Chateaubriand

#Character #Matter #Taste
Achilles exists only through Homer . Take away the art of writing from this world , and you will probably take away its glory .
-- FranÃ§ois-RenÃ© de Chateaubriand

#Art #Writing #World
There is no religion without mysteries. God Himself is the great secret of Nature .
-- FranÃ§ois-RenÃ© de Chateaubriand

#Secret #Mystery
Religion assures us that our afflictions shall have an end; she comforts us, she dries our tears, she promises us another life. On the contrary, in the abominable worship of atheism, human woes are the incense, death is the priest, a coffin the altar, and annihilation the Deity.
-- FranÃ§ois-RenÃ© de Chateaubriand

#Promise #Tears #Atheism

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