Alfred De Vigny Quotes

Alfred Victor, Comte de Vigny was a French poet and early leader of French Romanticism. He also produced novels, plays, and translations of Shakespeare. As an army officer with conservative and royalist views, Vigny differed sharply from most other French Romantics.

✵ 27. March 1797 – 17. September 1863
Alfred De Vigny photo

Works

Stello
Alfred De Vigny
Poèmes philosophiques
Alfred De Vigny
Alfred De Vigny: 11   quotes 9   likes

Famous Alfred De Vigny Quotes

“A calm despair, without angry convulsions or reproaches directed at heaven, is the essence of wisdom.”

Un désespoir paisible, sans convulsions de colère et sans reproches au ciel est la sagesse même.
Page 32 http://books.google.com/books?id=BVdHAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Un+d%C3%A9sespoir+paisible,+sans+convulsions+de+col%C3%A8re+et+sans+reproches+au+ciel+est+la+sagesse+m%C3%AAme%22&pg=PA32#v=onepage.
Journal d'un poète (1867)

“A book is a bottle thrown into the sea on which this label should be attached: Catch as catch can.”

Un livre est une bouteille jetée en pleine mer sur laquelle il faut coller cette étiquette: attrape qui peut.
Page 93.
Journal d'un poète (1867)

“In England the theatre has never been anything but a fashion for the upper classes or a debauch for the common people.”

Le théâtre n'a jamais été en Angleterre qu'une mode des hautes classes ou une débauche du bas peuple.
Page 348.
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.”

L'existence du Soldat est (après la peine de mort) la trace la plus douloureuse de barbarie qui subsiste parmi les hommes.
Servitude et grandeur militaires; (ed.) Paul Viallaneix Oeuvres complètes, (1965) p. 358; translation from Humphrey Hare (trans.) The Military Necessity (1953) p. 17. (1835).

Alfred De Vigny Quotes

“Every man has seen the wall that limits his mind.”

Tout homme a vu le mur qui borne son esprit.
Poèmes philosophiques, "La flute", line 108; (ed.) Paul Viallaneix Oeuvres complètes (1965) p. 103; translation from Jason Merchey Values of the Wise (2004) p. 200. (1843).

“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.”

La presse est une bouche forcée d'être toujours ouverte et de parler toujours. De là vient qu'elle dit mille fois qu'elle n'a rien à dire.
Page 48.
Journal d'un poète (1867)

“Clamour can be stifled, but how avenge oneself on silence?”

On étouffe les clameurs, mais comment se venger du silence?
Chap. 26, p. 433; translation by William Hazlitt from Cinq-Mars (1847) p. 344.
Cinq-Mars; ou, une conjuration sous Louis XIII (1826)

“Actors are lucky, they have glory without responsibility.”

Les acteurs sont bien heureux, ils ont une gloire sans responsabilité.
Page 44.
Journal d'un poète (1867)

“History is a novel whose author is the people.”

L'histoire est un roman dont le peuple est l'auteur.
"Réflexions sur la vérité dans l'art", p. 6; translation from James H. Johnson Listening in Paris (1995) p. 252.
Cinq-Mars; ou, une conjuration sous Louis XIII (1826)

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