Bounded in his nature, infinite in his desires, man is a fallen god who has a recollection of heaven.
—Alphonse de Lamartine
Topics: Desire, Man, Desires
Private passions tire and exhaust themselves, public ones never.
—Alphonse de Lamartine
Topics: Passion
Time! suspend your flight. Propitious hours, suspend your course! Let us savour the swift delights of the most beautiful of our days.
—Alphonse de Lamartine
Topics: Time Management, Value of Time
Sentiment is the poetry of the imagination.
—Alphonse de Lamartine
Topics: Emotions
Silence and simplicity obtrude on no one, but are yet two unequaled attractions in woman.
—Alphonse de Lamartine
Topics: Silence
Assassination makes only martyrs, not converts.
—Alphonse de Lamartine
When the press is the echo of sages and reformers, it works well; when it is the echo of turbulent cynics, it merely feeds political excitement.
—Alphonse de Lamartine
The more I see of the representatives of the people, the more I admire my dogs.
—Alphonse de Lamartine
Topics: Dogs
The people only understand what they can feel; the only orators that can affect them are those who move them.
—Alphonse de Lamartine
Topics: Speakers, Speaking
The most effective coquetry is innocence.
—Alphonse de Lamartine
Silence,—the applause of real and durable impressions.
—Alphonse de Lamartine
Topics: Silence
At twenty, everyone is republican.
—Alphonse de Lamartine
Newspapers will ultimately engross all literature—there will be nothing else published but newspapers.
—Alphonse de Lamartine
Sad is his lot, who, once at least in his life, has not been a poet.
—Alphonse de Lamartine
Topics: Poetry
Grief and sadness knits two hearts in closer bonds than happiness ever can; and common sufferings are far stronger than common joys.
—Alphonse de Lamartine
Topics: Grieving, Grief
History is neither more nor less than biography on a large scale.
—Alphonse de Lamartine
Topics: History
The loss of a mother is always severely felt: even though her health may incapacitate her from taking any active part in the care of her family, still she is a sweet rallying point, around which affection and obedience, and a thousand tender endeavors to please, concentrate; and dreary is the blank when such a point is withdrawn.
—Alphonse de Lamartine
Topics: Mother
Fine manners are a stronger bond than a beautiful face. The former binds; the latter only attracts.
—Alphonse de Lamartine
Topics: Manners
Void of freedom, what would virtue be?
—Alphonse de Lamartine
Topics: Freedom
If one had but a single glance to give the world, one should gaze on Istanbul.
—Alphonse de Lamartine
Topics: Cities, City Life
If God is thy father, man is thy brother.
—Alphonse de Lamartine
In the habits of legal men every accusation appears insufficient if they do not exaggerate it even to calumny. It is thus that justice itself loses its sanctity and its respect among men.
—Alphonse de Lamartine
Topics: Lawyers
It is admirable to die the victim of one’s faith; it is sad to die the dupe of one’s ambition.
—Alphonse de Lamartine
There is a woman at the beginning of all great things.
—Alphonse de Lamartine
Topics: Achievement, Success & Failure, Woman, Beginning
I am the fellow citizen of every being that thinks; my country is Truth.
—Alphonse de Lamartine
Topics: Truth
The death of a man’s wife is like cutting down an ancient oak that has long shaded the family mansion. Henceforth the glare of the world, with its cares and vicissitudes, falls upon the widower’s heart, and there is nothing to break their force, or shield him from the full weight of misfortune. It is as if his right hand were withered; as if one wing of his angel was broken, and every movement that he made brought him to the ground. His eyes are dimmed and glassy, and when the film of death falls over him, he misses those accustomed tones which might have smoothed his passage to the grave.
—Alphonse de Lamartine
Topics: Wife
Man never fastened one end of a chain around the neck of his brother, that God did not fasten the other end round the neck of the oppressor.
—Alphonse de Lamartine
God has placed the genius of women in their hearts; because the works of this genius are always works of love.
—Alphonse de Lamartine
Topics: Woman
Let us enjoy the fugitive hour. Man has no harbor, time has no shore, it rushes on and carries us with it.
—Alphonse de Lamartine
Topics: Present
Experience is the only prophecy of wise men.
—Alphonse de Lamartine
Topics: Experience
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- Jean Cocteau French Poet, Artist
- Jean de La Fontaine French Poet
- Voltaire French Philosopher, Author
- Stanislas de Boufflers French Political Leader
- Arthur Rimbaud French Poet
- Remy de Gourmont French Poet, Writer
- Charles Baudelaire French Poet
- Guillaume Apollinaire Italian-born French Poet
- Victor Hugo French Novelist
- Brother Lawrence French Carmelite Monk
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