François-René de Chateaubriand quotes - page 2

I have been present at sieges, congresses, conclaves, at the restoration and demolition of thrones. I have made history, and been able to write it. ... Within and alongside my age, perhaps without wishing or seeking to, I have exerted upon it a triple influence, religious, political and literary. (François-René de Chateaubriand)
New storms will arise; one can believe in calamities to come which will surpass the afflictions we have been overwhelmed by in the past; already, men are thinking of bandaging their old wounds to return to the battlefield. View quote
François-René de Chateaubriand
Washington acted as the representative of the needs, the ideas, the enlightened men, the opinions of his age; he supported, not thwarted, the stirrings of intellect; he desired only what he had to desire, the very thing to which he had been called: from which derives the coherence and longevity of his work. View quote
François-René de Chateaubriand
I have explored the seas of the Old World and the New, and trodden the soil of the four quarters of the Earth. View quote
François-René de Chateaubriand
The scenes of tomorrow no longer concern me; they call for other artists: your turn, gentlemen! View quote
François-René de Chateaubriand
To himself, he always appears to be doing both. View quote
François-René de Chateaubriand
I have borne the musket of a soldier, the traveller's cane, and the pilgrim's staff: as a sailor my fate has been as inconstant as the wind: a kingfisher, I have made my nest among the waves. View quote
François-René de Chateaubriand
You are not superior just because you see the world in an odious light. View quote
François-René de Chateaubriand
How small man is on this little atom where he dies! But how great his intelligence! He knows when the face of the stars must be masked in darkness, when the comets will return after thousands of years, he who lasts only an instant! A microscopic insect lost in a fold of the heavenly robe, the orbs cannot hide from him a single one of their movements in the depth of space. What destinies will those stars, new to us, light? Is their revelation bound up with some new phase of humanity? You will know, race to be born; I know not, and I am departing. View quote
François-René de Chateaubriand