1768-1848, French Politician, Writer
Aristocracy has three successive ages. First superiority s, then privileges and finally vanities. Having passed from the first, it degenerates in the second and dies in the third.
Vicomte De Chateaubriand – [Aristocracy]
Let us not disdain glory too much; nothing is finer, except virtue. The height of happiness would be to unite both in this life.
Vicomte De Chateaubriand – [Fame]
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.
Vicomte De Chateaubriand – [Perfection]
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.
Vicomte De Chateaubriand – [Taste]