Alfred de Vigny
Alfred de Vigny
Alfred Victor, Comte de Vignywas a French poet and early leader of French Romanticism. He also produced novels, plays, and translations of Shakespeare. Unlike many of the French Romantics, Vigny was an army officer with conservative and consistently royalist views...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth27 March 1797
CountryFrance
war men soldier
The existence of the soldier, next to capital punishment, is the most grievous vestige of barbarism which survives among men.
art years political
Of late years (perhaps as a result of our political changes) art has borrowed from history more than ever.
children hero use
I have a private theory, Sir, that there are no heroes and no monsters in this world. Only children should be allowed to use these words
art use imitation
Of what use were the arts if they were only the reproduction and the imitation of life?
lying moving use
What is the use of theorizing as to wherein lies the charm that moves us?
mean sacred-things shame
Honour is manly decency. The shame of being found wanting in it means everything to us. Is this, then, the indefinable, the sacred thing?
real civilization details
What it values most of all is the sum total of events and the advance of civilization, which carries individuals along with it; but, indifferent to details, it cares less to have them real than noble or, rather, grand and complete.
men ideas years
What is a great life if not a youthful idea executed by a man of mature years.
art relation ideals
Art ought never to be considered except in its relations with its ideal beauty.