Alfred de Vigny

One might almost reckon mathematically that, having undergone the double composition of public opinion and of the author, their history reaches us at third hand and is thus separated by two stages from the original fact.

— Alfred de Vigny

Hope is the greatest madness. What can we expect of a world that we enter with the assurance of seeing our fathers and mothers die? A world where, if two beings love each other and give their lives to each other, both can be sure that one will watch the other perish?

— Alfred de Vigny

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

— Alfred de Vigny

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

— Alfred de Vigny

We live in an age of universal investigation, and of exploration of the sources of all movements.

— Alfred de Vigny

Art ought never to be considered except in its relations with its ideal beauty.

— Alfred de Vigny