Emile Chartier Quotes

• Nothing is more dangerous than an idea when it is the only one you have.

  Emile Chartier

  Inspirational, Inspiring, Wisdom

  24 Copy quote

• I have only one thing to say to the melancholy man: 'Look into the distance.' ... When you look at the stars or the ocean's expanse, your eye is completely relaxed; once your eye is relaxed, your mind is unfettered.

  Emile Chartier

  Stars, Distance, Ocean

  16 Copy quote

• Two things are aesthetically perfect in the world - the clock and the cat.

  Emile Chartier

  Cat, Two, Perfect

  19 Copy quote

• It is not difficult to be unhappy or discontented; all you have to do is sit down, like a prince waiting to be amused. ... It is impossible to be happy if one does not have the desire to be happy; one must therefore will one's happiness, and create it.

  Emile Chartier

  Waiting, Unhappy, Desire

  17 Copy quote

• The most difficult thing in the world is to say thinkingly what everybody says without thinking.

  Emile Chartier

  Thinking, World, Difficult

  25 Copy quote

• There is a future that makes itself and a future we make. The real future is composed of both.

  Emile Chartier

  Real

  24 Copy quote

• To think is to say 'no.'

  Emile Chartier

  Thinking, Nihilism, Human Condition

  "The Citizen against the Powers". Book by Emile Chartier, 1926.

  27 Copy quote

• What is a thousand years? Time is short for one who thinks, endless for one who yearns.

  Emile Chartier

  Time, Thinking, Years

  18 Copy quote

• We must recognize the eloquence of our passions and refuse to be taken in. Instead of saying, 'That false friend always did despise me,' say: 'In my present state of agitation, I can't see clearly, I can't judge clearly; I am only a tragic actor who is declaiming for his own ears.' Then you will see the lights in the theater go out for lack of an audience, and the brilliant sets will be nothing more than painted cardboard.

  Emile Chartier

  Taken, Passion, Light

  18 Copy quote

• One must be truthful with oneself about one's own motives, especially if one is to survive in the world. It takes rigor, and it takes courage.

  Emile Chartier

  Inspirational, Self Respect, World

  21 Copy quote

• People who are upset about something ruminate on it whenever they get a chance; they are constantly drawn back to their own unhappy tale as if it were a horror story left open on a table.

  Emile Chartier

  Horror Stories, People, Upset

  16 Copy quote

• We prove what we want to prove, and the real difficulty is to know what we want to prove.

  Emile Chartier

  Real, Want, Proof

  "The Most Brilliant Thoughts of All Time". Book by John M. Shanahan, September 1909.

  17 Copy quote

• Profound sadness is always the result of an unhealthy condition of the body. ... We [should] say, 'I am sad; everything looks black to me; but external events are in no way responsible. It's my body that insists on reasoning. These are the opinions of my stomach.'

  Emile Chartier

  Sadness, Profound, Black

  19 Copy quote

• There are only two kinds of scholars; those who love ideas and those who hate them.

  Emile Chartier

  Hate, Ideas, Two

  7 Copy quote

• When we speak, in gestures or signs, we fashion a real object in the world; the gesture is seen, the words and the song are heard. The arts are simply a kind of writing, which, in one way or another, fixes words or gestures, and gives body to the invisible.

  Emile Chartier

  Fashion, Song, Art

  "The Gods". Book by Emile Chartier, 1934.

  11 Copy quote

• Wouldn't a sailor laugh at you if you told him that the whole crossing depends on the first turn of the helm?

  Emile Chartier

  Laughing, Sailor, Firsts

  14 Copy quote

• Man himself is an enigma in motion; his questions never stay asked; whereas the mold, the footprint, and by natural extension, the statue itself, like the vaults, the arches, the temples with which man records his own passing, remain immobile and fix a moment of man's life, upon which one might endlessly meditate.

  Emile Chartier

  Men, Might, Vaults

  "The Gods". Book by Emile Chartier, 1934.

  16 Copy quote

• It is the human condition to question one god after another, one appearance after another, or better, one apparition after another, always pursuing the truth of the imagination, which is not the same as the truth of appearance.

  Emile Chartier

  Imagination, Appearance, Apparitions

  "The Gods". Book by Emile Chartier, 1934.

  12 Copy quote

• If religion is only human, and its form is man's form, it follows that everything in religion is true.

  Emile Chartier

  Men, Religion, Form

  "The Gods". Book by Emile Chartier, 1934.

  14 Copy quote

• Every idea I get I have to deny, that's my way of testing it.

  Emile Chartier

  Ideas, Way, Deny

  11 Copy quote

• As opposed to the incoherent spectacle of the world, the real is what is expected, what is obtained and what is discovered by our own movement. It is what is sensed as being within our own power and always responsive to our action.

  Emile Chartier

  Real, Movement, World

  "The Gods". Book by Emile Chartier, 1934.

  7 Copy quote

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