"How small man is on this little atom where he dies! But how great his intelligence! He knows when the face of the stars must be masked in darkness, when the comets will return after thousands of years, he who lasts only an instant! A microscopic insect lost in a fold of the heavenly robe, the orbs cannot hide from him a single one of their movements in the depth of space. What destinies will those stars, new to us, light? Is their revelation bound up with some new phase of humanity? You will know, race to be born; I know not, and I am departing."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Book XLII: Ch. 18: A summary of the changes which have occurred around the globe in my lifetime
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois-Ren%C3%A9_de_Chateaubriand
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
François-René de Chateaubriand
28 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by François-René de Chateaubriand →
Related Quotes
"L’écrivain original n’est pas celui qui n’imite personne, mais celui que personne ne peut imiter."
"Every institution goes through three stages — utility, privilege, and abuse."
"One does not learn how to die by killing others."
"J'ai pleuré et j'ai cru."
"Achilles exists only through Homer. Take away the art of writing from this world, and you will probably take away its…"
"I am Bourbon as a matter of honour, royalist according to reason and conviction, and republican by taste and character."
"In living literature no person is a competent judge but of works written in his own language. I have expressed my opi…"
"Perfect works are rare, because they must be produced at the happy moment when taste and genius unite; and this rare …"
"Aussitôt qu'une pensée vraie est entrée dans notre esprit, elle jette une lumière qui nous fait voir une foule d'autr…"
"Though we have not employed the arguments usually advanced by the apologists of Christianity, we have arrived by a di…"