Alphonse de Lamartine
Alphonse de Lamartine
Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine, chevalier de Pratz, was a French writer, poet and politician who was instrumental in the foundation of the Second Republic and the continuation of the Tricolore as the flag of France...
happiness joy storm
What mortal is there, over whose first joys and happiness does not break some storm, dispelling with its icy breath his fanciful illusions, and shattering his altar?
believe people joy
I love the people because I believe in God. For, if I did not believe in God, what would the people be to me? I should enjoy at ease that lucky throw of the dice, which chance had turned up for me, the day of my birth; and, with a secret, savage joy, I should say, "So much the worse for the losers!--the world is a lottery. Woe to the conquered!
flames joy association
Joy is a flame which association alone can keep alive, and which goes out unless communicated.
time men heaven
Man hath no Heaven and Time's coast is chartless. He speeds; we pass away!
dog horse elephants
I am persuaded that if the brutes even--if the dog, the horse, the ox, the elephant, the bird, could speak, they would confess, that, at the bottom of their nature, their instincts, their sensations, their obtuse intelligence, assisted by organs less perfect than ours, there is a clouded, secret sentiment of this existence of a superior and primordial Being, from whom all emanates, and to whom all returns.
night dawn
I say to this night: "Pass more slowly"; and the dawn will come to dispel the night.
hours passing enjoy
Let us love the passing hour, let us hurry up and enjoy our time.
giving chance should
Chance often gives us that which we should not have presumed to ask.
life-is-too-short passion evil
Life is too short to spare an hour of it in the indulgence of this evil passion.
beautiful one-day delight
Let us savour the swift delights of the most beautiful of our days!
art eye should-have
An artist should have more than two eyes.
martyr assassination
Assassination makes only martyrs, not converts.
civilization excess barbarism
Barbarism recommences by the excess of civilization.
poetry poet
Sad is his lot, who, once at least in his life, has not been a poet.