ALPHONSE DE LAMARTINE

Limited in his nature, infinite in his desire, man is a fallen god who remembers heaven.

The people only understand what they can feel; the only orators that can affect them are those who move them.

Brutality to an animal is cruelty to mankind - it is only the difference in the victim.

Experience is the only prophecy of wise men.

Habit with it's iron sinews, clasps us and leads us day by day.

Private passions tire and exhaust themselves, public ones never.

Providence conceals itself in the details of human affairs, but becomes unveiled in the generalities of history.

A conscience without God is like a court without a judge.

Sometimes, only one person is missing, and the whole world seems depopulated.

If one had but a single glance to give the world, one should gaze on Istanbul.

To love for the sake of being loved is human, but to love for the sake of loving is angelic.

Poets and heroes are of the same race, the latter do what the former conceive.

Grief knits two hearts in closer bonds than happiness ever can; and common sufferings are far stronger links than common joys.

The more I see of the representatives of the people, the more I admire my dogs.

The state considers that its purpose is to enlighten, to develop, to enlarge, to strengthen, to spiritualize, and to sanctify the soul of the people.

There’s a woman at the beginning of all great things.

Peace at any price.

Private passions grow tired and wear themselves out; political passions, never.

The saintly poet was without knowing it, the first radical and the first communist of his century.

I am the fellow citizen of every thinking man: Truth is my native land.

New monarchies are demolished by their enemies; restored ones by their friends.

Civil wars leave nothing but tombs.

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!

Religions are not proved, are not demonstrated, are not established, are not overthrown by logic! They are of all the mysteries of nature and the human mind, the most mysterious and most inexplicable; they are of instinct and not of reason.

It is in the habits of lawyers that 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 amongst men.