Quote

One might almost reckon mathematically that, having undergone the double composition of public opinion and of the author, their history reaches us at third hand and is thus separated by two stages from the original fact.

Alfred de Vigny

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Alfred de Vigny
Age: 66 †
Born: 1797
Born: March 27
Died: 1863
Died: September 17
Diarist
Novelist
Playwright
Poet
Translator
Writer
Alfred Victor de Vigny
Alfred Victor
comte de Vigny
Public
Originals
Undergone
Almost
Original
Reckon
Fact
Third
Stages
History
Thirds
Reaches
Facts
Thus
Separated
Hands
Stage
Composition
Two
Hand
Double
Might
Opinion
Author
Mathematically

More quotes by Alfred de Vigny

Image
On the day when man told the story of his life to man, history was born.
Alfred de Vigny
Image
The study of social progress is to-day not less needed in literature than is the analysis of the human heart.
Alfred de Vigny
Image
France, for example, loves at the same time history and the drama, because the one explores the vast destinies of humanity, and the other the individual lot of man.
Alfred de Vigny
Image
Just as we descend into our consciences to judge of actions which our minds can not weigh, can we not also search in ourselves for the feeling which gives birth to forms of thought, always vague and cloudy?
Alfred de Vigny
Image
Doubt is the freedom of thought. Any claim to truth can be doubted.
Alfred de Vigny
Image
Perform your long and heavy task with energy, treading the path to which Fate has been pleased to call you.
Alfred de Vigny
Image
Only silence is great all else is weakness.
Alfred de Vigny
Image
A calm despair, without angry convulsions or reproaches directed at heaven, is the essence of wisdom.
Alfred de Vigny
Image
Of late years (perhaps as a result of our political changes) art has borrowed from history more than ever.
Alfred de Vigny
Image
The true God, the mighty God, is the God of ideas.
Alfred de Vigny
Image
I think, then, that man, after having satisfied his first longing for facts, wanted something fuller - some grouping, some adaptation to his capacity and experience, of the links of this vast chain of events which his sight could not take in.
Alfred de Vigny
Image
Of what use were the arts if they were only the reproduction and the imitation of life?
Alfred de Vigny
Image
An army is a nation within a nation, it is one of the vices of courage.
Alfred de Vigny
Image
The events I sought were never as great as I needed them to be.
Alfred de Vigny
Image
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
Image
Honour is manly decency. The shame of being found wanting in it means everything to us. Is this, then, the indefinable, the sacred thing?
Alfred de Vigny
Image
What is a great life but a youthful intention carried out in maturity?
Alfred de Vigny
Image
Fainthearted animals move about in herds. The lion walks alone in the desert. Let the poet always walk thus.
Alfred de Vigny
Image
The acts of the human race on the world's stage have doubtless a coherent unity, but the meaning of the vast tragedy enacted will be visible only to the eye of God, until the end, which will reveal it perhaps to the last man.
Alfred de Vigny
Image
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