National Character of Americans—first impressions (1831) Oeuvres complètes, vol. VIII, p. 233 https://books.google.de/books?id=x9pnAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA2-PA233&q=ciel.
Original text:
Né sous un autre ciel, placé au milieu d'un tableau toujours mouvant, poussé lui-même par le torrent irrésistible qui entraîne tout ce qui l'environne, l'Américain n'a le temps de s'attacher à rien; il ne s'accoutume qu'au changement, et finit par le regarder comme l'état naturel à l'homme; il en sent le besoin; bien plus, il l'aime : car l'instabilité, au lieu de se produire à lui par des désastres, semble n'enfanter autour de lui que des prodiges...
1830s
“Man loves the marvelous. It has an irresistible charm for him. He is always ready to leave that with which he is familiar to pursue vain inventions. He lends himself to his own deception.”
Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)
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Napoleon I of France 259
French general, First Consul and later Emperor of the French 1769–1821Related quotes
"The Lees of Happiness"
Quoted, Tales of the Jazz Age (1922)
Context: It was a marriage of love. He was sufficiently spoiled to be charming; she was ingenuous enough to be irresistible. Like two floating logs they met in a head-on rush, caught, and sped along together.
Misattributed to Chateaubriand on the internet and even some recently published books, this statement actually originated with L. P. Jacks in Education through Recreation (1932)
Misattributed
Persecution and Tolerance, Hulsean Lectures, University of Cambridge (Winter 1893–94)
“What a wretched sort of deception, when a man so lies to his friends that he dupes himself.”
Ez ist ein armer trügesite,
der vriunden alsô liuget,
daz er sich selben triuget.
Source: Tristan, Line 12308