Alfred de Vigny

The acts of the human race on the world's stage have doubtless a coherent unity, but the meaning of the vast tragedy…

— Alfred de Vigny

What is a great life? It is the dreams of youth realised in old age.

— Alfred de Vigny

No writer, no matter how gifted, immortalizes himself unless he has crystallized into expressive and original phrase the eternal sentiments and yearnings…

— Alfred de Vigny

To hold power has always meant to manipulate idiots and circumstances; and those circumstances and those idiots, tossed together, bring about those…

— Alfred de Vigny

Poetry is the disease of the brain.

— Alfred de Vigny

The human mind, I believe, cares for the True only in the general character of an epoch.

— Alfred de Vigny

Do you know that charming part of our country which has been called the garden of France - that spot where, amid…

— Alfred de Vigny

We shall find in our troubled hearts, where discord reigns, two needs which seem at variance, but which merge, as I think,…

— Alfred de Vigny

But it is the province of religion, of philosophy, of pure poetry only, to go beyond life, beyond time, into eternity.

— Alfred de Vigny

Perform your long and heavy task with energy, treading the path to which Fate has been pleased to call you.

— Alfred de Vigny

Fainthearted animals move about in herds. The lion walks alone in the desert. Let the poet always walk thus.

— Alfred de Vigny

What is the use of theorizing as to wherein lies the charm that moves us?

— Alfred de Vigny

Hope is the biggest of our foolish things.

— Alfred de Vigny

“Those intellectuals are our natural enemies; the only kind who are worth anything are the musicians and the dancers: they don’t insult…

— Alfred de Vigny

Of what use is the memory of facts, if not to serve as an example of good or of evil?

— Alfred de Vigny

The loveliest Muse in the world does not feed her owner; these girls make fine mistresses but terrible wives

— Alfred de Vigny

The study of social progress is today not less needed in literature than is the analysis of the human heart.

— Alfred de Vigny

What is a great life but a youthful intention carried out in maturity?

— Alfred de Vigny

The study of social progress is to-day not less needed in literature than is the analysis of the human heart. We live…

— Alfred de Vigny

Of late years (perhaps as a result of our political changes) art has borrowed from history more than ever.

— Alfred de Vigny

An army is a nation within a nation, it is one of the vices of courage.

— Alfred de Vigny

Honour is manly decency. The shame of being found wanting in it means everything to us. Is this, then, the indefinable, the…

— Alfred de Vigny

Invisible is real. Souls have their own world.

— Alfred de Vigny

Oh, I have a habit of letting myself be lectured on the things I know best. I like to see if they…

— Alfred de Vigny

Of what use were the arts if they were only the reproduction and the imitation of life?

— Alfred de Vigny