CINQ MARS



By Alfred de Vigny





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A cat is a very fine animal.  It is a
drawing-room tiger

A queen's country is where her throne
is

Adopted fact is always better composed
than the real one

Advantage that a calm temper gives one
over men

All that he said, I had already thought

Always the first word which is the most
difficult to say

Ambition is the saddest of all hopes

Art is the chosen truth

Artificialities of style of that period

Artistic Truth, more lofty than the
True

As Homer says, "smiling under tears"

Assume with others the mien they wore
toward him

But how avenge one's self on silence?

Dare now to be silent when I have told
you these things

Daylight is detrimental to them

Deny the spirit of self-sacrifice

Difference which I find between Truth
in art and the True in fac

Doubt, the greatest misery of love

Friendship exists only in independence
and a kind of equality

Happy is he who does not outlive his
youth

Hatred of everything which is superior
to myself

He did not blush to be a man, and he
spoke to men with force

Hermits can not refrain from inquiring
what men say of them

History too was a work of art

I have burned all the bridges behind me

In pitying me he forgot himself

In every age we laugh at the costume of
our fathers

In times like these we must see all and
say all

It is not now what it used to be

It is too true that virtue also has its
blush

Lofty ideal of woman and of love

Men are weak, and there are things
which women must accomplish

Money is not a common thing between
gentlemen like you and me

Monsieur, I know that I have lived too
long

Neither idealist nor realist

Never interfered in what did not
concern him

No writer had more dislike of mere
pedantry

Offices will end by rendering great
names vile

Princes ought never to be struck,
except on the head

Princesses ceded like a town, and must
not even weep

Principle that art implied selection

Recommended a scrupulous observance of
nature

Remedy infallible against the plague
and against reserve

Reproaches are useless and cruel if the
evil is done

Should be punished for not having known
how to punish

So strongly does force impose upon men

Tears for the future

The great leveller has swung a long
scythe over France

The most in favor will be the soonest
abandoned by him

The usual remarks prompted by
imbecility on such occasions

These ideas may serve as opium to
produce a calm

They tremble while they threaten

They have believed me incapable because
I was kind

They loved not as you love, eh?

This popular favor is a cup one must
drink

This was the Dauphin, afterward Louis
XIV

True talent paints life rather than the
living

Truth,  I here venture to distinguish
from that of the True

Urbain Grandier

What use is the memory of facts, if not
to serve as an example

Woman is more bitter than death, and
her arms are like chains

Yes, we are in the way here


If you wish to read the entire context of any of these quotations, select a short segment and copy it into your clipboard memory--then open the appropriate eBook and paste the phrase into your computer's find or search operation.


These quotations were collected from the works of the author by David Widger while he was preparing etexts for Project Gutenberg. Comments and suggestions will be most welcome.

--And many thanks for your persistence in reading all the way to the end of this page.        D.W.





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