To hold power has always meant to manipulate idiots and circumstances; and those circumstances and those idiots, tossed together, bring about those coincidences to which even the greatest men confess they owe most of their fame — Alfred de Vigny Copy Share 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… — Alfred de Vigny Copy Share Image
A calm despair, without angry convulsions or reproaches directed at heaven, is the essence of wisdom. — Alfred de Vigny Copy Share 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 Copy Share Image
From this, without doubt, sprang the fable. Man created it thus, because it was not given him to see more than himself and nature,… — Alfred de Vigny Copy Share Image
The existence of the soldier, next to capital punishment, is the most grievous vestige of barbarism which survives among men. — Alfred de Vigny Copy Share Image
I think, then, that man, after having satisfied his first longing for facts, wanted something fuller - some grouping, some adaptation to his capacity… — Alfred de Vigny Copy Share Image
What it values most of all is the sum total of events and the advance of civilization, which carries individuals along with it; but,… — Alfred de Vigny Copy Share Image
“We have also set up for them an edifying project for a continuous mitigation of their own tyranny, ascribing to them an unshakeable faith… — Alfred de Vigny Copy Share Image
On the day when man told the story of his life to man, history was born. — Alfred de Vigny Copy Share Image
Doubt is the freedom of thought. Any claim to truth can be doubted. — Alfred de Vigny Copy Share Image
