|
LAMARTINE, Alphonse de Quotes
(1790-1869), French poet
If God is thy father, man is thy brother.
The most effective coquetry is innocence.
Void of freedom, what would virtue be?
Grief knits two hearts in closer bonds than happiness ever can; common sufferings are far stronger links than common joys.
History is neither more nor less than biography on a large scale.
Providence conceals itself in the details of human affairs, but becomes unveiled in the generalities of history.
The impartiality of history is not that of the mirror, which merely reflects objects, but of the judge who sees, listens, and decides.
In the habits of legal men every accusation appears insufficient if they do not exaggerate it even to calumny. It is thus that justice itself loses its sanctity and its respect among men.
Limited in his nature, infinite in his desires.
Bounded in his nature, infinite in his desires, man is a fallen god who has a recollection of heaven.
Fine manners are a stronger bond than a beautiful face. The former binds; the latter only attracts.
It is admirable to die the victim of one's faith; it is sad to die the dupe of one's ambition.
The loss of a mother is always severely felt: even though her health may incapacitate her from taking any active part in the care of her family, still she is a sweet rallying point, around which affection and obedience, and a thousand tender endeavors to please, concentrate; and dreary is the blank when such a point is withdrawn.
Newspapers will ultimately engross all literature—there will be nothing else published but newspapers.
Before this century shall run out, journalism will be the whole press. Mankind will write their book day by day, hour by hour, page by page. Thought will spread abroad with the rapidity of light, instantly conceived, instantly written, instantly understood at the extremities of the earth, it will spread from pole to pole, suddenly burning with the fervor of soul which made it burst forth; it will be the reign of the human mind in all its plenitude; it will not have time to ripen, to accumulate in the form of a book; the book will arrive too late; the only book possible from day to day is a newspaper.
Sad is his lot, who, once at least in his life, has not been a poet.
The greatness of a popular character is less according to the ratio of his genius than the sympathy he shows with the prejudices and even the absurdities of his time. Fanatics do not select the cleverest, but the most fanatical leaders; as was evidenced in the choice of Robespierre by the French Jacobins, and in that of Cromwell by the English Puritans.
Let us enjoy the fugitive hour. Man has no harbor, time has no shore, it rushes on and carries us with it.
When the press is the echo of sages and reformers, it works well; when it is the echo of turbulent cynics, it merely feeds political excitement.
At twenty, everyone is republican.
Always driven toward new shores, or carried hence without hope of return, shall we never, on the ocean of age, cast anchor for even a day?
Man never fastened one end of a chain around the neck of his brother, that God did not fasten the other end round the neck of the oppressor.
The death of a man's wife is like cutting down an ancient oak that has long shaded the family mansion. Henceforth the glare of the world, with its cares and vicissitudes, falls upon the widower's heart, and there is nothing to break their force, or shield him from the full weight of misfortune. It is as if his right hand were withered; as if one wing of his angel was broken, and every movement that he made brought him to the ground. His eyes are dimmed and glassy, and when the film of death falls over him, he misses those accustomed tones which might have smoothed his passage to the grave.
God has placed the genius of women in their hearts; because the works of this genius are always works of love.
There is a woman at the beginning of all great things.
Women have more heart and more imagination than men.
|
