14 quotes
History is a novel whose author is the people.
Cinq-Mars; ou, une conjuration sous Louis XIII (1826)
Every man has seen the wall that limits his mind.
Clamour can be stifled, but how avenge oneself on silence?
Cinq-Mars; ou, une conjuration sous Louis XIII (1826)
In England the theatre has never been anything but a fashion for the upper classes or a debauch for the common people.
Journal d'un poète (1867)
The soldier's lot is the most melancholy relic of barbarism (next to capital punishment) that lingers on among mankind.
Woman, sick child and twelve times unclean!
A calm despair, without angry convulsions or reproaches directed at heaven, is the essence of wisdom.
Journal d'un poète (1867)
What is a great life? It is the dreams of youth realised in old age.
A book is a bottle thrown into the sea on which this label should be attached: Catch as catch can.
Journal d'un poète (1867)
Actors are lucky, they have glory without responsibility.
Journal d'un poète (1867)
The press is a mouth forced to be forever open and forever talking. Consequently it says a thousand times that it has nothing to say.
Journal d'un poète (1867)
"… Honour … remains awake in us like a last lamp in a temple that has been laid to waste."
Servitude et grandeur militaires (1835)
False enthusiasms! subtle poisons! — What antidote can ever be found against you!
In our lives the revolutions that take place in the soul often derive from a specific day, or hour, or from an unforeseen but memorable conversation which disturbs us and plants new seeds that slowly grow, and of which the rest of our actions are simply the consequences and natural development.