One is not superior merely because one sees the world as odious.
-- François-René de Chateaubriand
A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and his play; his labor and his leisure; his mind and his body; his education and his recreation. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence through whatever he is doing, and leaves others to determine whether he is working or playing. To himself, he always appears to be doing both.
-- François-René de Chateaubriand
Are you angry? Look at the child who has erred, he suspects no trouble, he dreams of no harm; you will borrow something of that innocence, you will feel appeased.
-- François-René de Chateaubriand
Aristocracy has three successive ages, — the age of superiorities, the age of privileges, and the age of vanities; having passed out of the first, it degenerates in the second, and dies away in the third.
-- François-René de Chateaubriand
As long as the heart preserves desire, the mind preserves illusions.
-- François-René de Chateaubriand
Cats were put into the world to disprove the dogma that all things were created to serve man.
-- François-René de Chateaubriand
Genius creates, and taste preserves. Taste is the good sense of genius; without taste, genius is only sublime folly.
-- François-René de Chateaubriand
It is necessary to repent for years in order to efface a fault in the eyes of men; a single tear suffices with God.
-- François-René de Chateaubriand
Justice is the bread of the nation, it is always hungry for it.
-- François-René de Chateaubriand
Let us not disdain glory too much — nothing is finer except virtue. The height of happiness would be to unite both in this life.
-- François-René de Chateaubriand
Music is the child of prayer, the companion of religion.
-- François-René de Chateaubriand
Perfect works are rare, because they must be produced at the happy moment when taste and genius unite; and this rare conjuncture, like that of certain planets, appears to occur only after the revolution of several cycles, and only lasts for an instant.
-- François-René de Chateaubriand
Religion assures us that our afflictions shall have an end; she comforts us, she dries our tears, she promises us another life. On the contrary, in the abominable worship of atheism, human woes are the incense, death is the priest, a coffin the altar, and annihilation the Deity..
-- François-René de Chateaubriand
Something you consider bad may bring out your child's talents; something you consider good may stifle them.
-- François-René de Chateaubriand
The cat lives alone, has no need of society, obeys only when she pleases, pretends to sleep that she may see more clearly, and scratches everything on which she can lay her paw.
-- François-René de Chateaubriand
There is nothing more servile, despicable, cowardly and narrow-minded than a terrorist.
-- François-René de Chateaubriand
Time spent with cats is never wasted.
-- François-René de Chateaubriand
We can prostrate ourselves in the dust when we have committed a fault, but it is not best to remain there.
-- François-René de Chateaubriand
We must not always try to plumb the depths of the human heart; the truths it contains are among those that are best seen in half-light or in perspective.
-- François-René de Chateaubriand
Without taste genius is only a sublime kind of folly. That sure touch which the lyre gives back the right note and nothing more, is even a rarer gift than the creative faculty itself.
-- François-René de Chateaubriand
The original writer is not he who refrains from imitating others, but he who can be imitated by none.
-- François-René de Chateaubriand
The original style is not the style which never borrows of any one, but that which no other person is capable of reproducing.
-- François-René de Chateaubriand
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