François-René de Chateaubriand quotes - page 2

François-René de Chateaubriand was a French writer, politician, and diplomat, considered one of the founders of Romanticism in French literature. His works explored themes of nature, emotion, and the search for meaning in a changing world. He greatly influenced future generations of writers and remains a key figure in literary and political history. Here are 34 of his quotes:

New storms will arise; one can believe in calamities to come which will surpass the afflictions we have been overwhelmed by in the past; already, men are thinking of bandaging their old wounds to return to the battlefield.

François-René de Chateaubriand

Washington acted as the representative of the needs, the ideas, the enlightened men, the opinions of his age; he supported, not thwarted, the stirrings of intellect; he desired only what he had to desire, the very thing to which he had been called: from which derives the coherence and longevity of his work.

François-René de Chateaubriand

I have explored the seas of the Old World and the New, and trodden the soil of the four quarters of the Earth.

François-René de Chateaubriand

The scenes of tomorrow no longer concern me; they call for other artists: your turn, gentlemen!

François-René de Chateaubriand

To himself, he always appears to be doing both.

François-René de Chateaubriand

I have borne the musket of a soldier, the traveller's cane, and the pilgrim's staff: as a sailor my fate has been as inconstant as the wind: a kingfisher, I have made my nest among the waves.

François-René de Chateaubriand

You are not superior just because you see the world in an odious light.

François-René de Chateaubriand

How small man is on this little atom where he dies! But how great his intelligence! He knows when the face of the stars must be masked in darkness, when the comets will return after thousands of years, he who lasts only an instant! A microscopic insect lost in a fold of the heavenly robe, the orbs cannot hide from him a single one of their movements in the depth of space. What destinies will those stars, new to us, light? Is their revelation bound up with some new phase of humanity? You will know, race to be born; I know not, and I am departing.

François-René de Chateaubriand