35
Je déteste ce que vous écrivez, mais je donnerai ma vie pour que vous puissiez continuer à écrire.
I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
Von Voltaire
84
Du sublime au ridicule il n’y a qu’un pas.
There is only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.
Von Napoleon Bonaparte
Said by Napoleon to De Pradt, the French ambassador to Warsaw, after the retreat from Moscow in 1812.
56
Je n'ai fait celle-ci plus longue parce que je n'ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte.
I have made this letter longer than usual, because I lack the time to make it short.
Von Blaise Pascal
In his Lettres Provinciales (1656-1657). What he was saying, of course, is that it's easy to ramble on, it takes effort to be succinct.
59
Après moi, le déluge.
Ruin, if you like, when we are dead and gone.
Von King Louis XV of France
King Louis XV said to Madame de Pompadour. It is generally considered a nihilistic expression of indifference to whatever happens after one is gone though it may also express a more literal forecasting of ruination. The phrase refers to the biblical flood and is believed to date from after the 1757 Battle of Rossbach, which was disastrous for the French.
32
L'homme est né libre et partout il est dans les fers.
Man was born free, and everywhere he is in chains.
Von Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Opening sentence of the first chapter of his book "The Social Contract".
102
Créer, c’est vivre deux fois.
To create is to live twice.
Von Albert Camus, French author
34
Et qu'est-ce qu'il a voulu dire par ça?
And what did he mean by that?
Von Klemens von Metternich
19th century Austrian diplomat Metternich, who was used to interpreting political actions as expressions of possible signals of new strategies is said to have asked of Talleyrand when he heard that the French statesman had died.
2
Si Dieu n’existait pas, il faudrait l’inventer
If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him
Von Voltaire
57
Tous pour un, un pour tous.
All for one, and one for all.
Von Alexandre Dumas
It is associated with the characters of his novel The Three Musketeers (1844).
97
Il existe une beauté particulière qui naît dans le langage, du langage et pour le langage.
A special kind of beauty exists which is born in language, of language, and for language.
Von Gaston Bachelard, French philosopher
58
Honi soit qui mal y pense.
Evil to him who evil thinks.
Von Edward III of England, Monarch of England
It´s the motto of the British Order of the Garter originated by Edward 3rd (in 1348 or 1349).
91
Qu'ils mangent de la brioche.
Dann sollen sie Kuchen essen.
Von ???
Dieses Zitat wir oft Marie-Antoinette, der Frau Ludwig des XVI, zugeschrieben. Woher es wirklich stammt, ist unbekannt. Bereits in den 1760er Jahren findet man den Satz in den Memoiren des Philosophen Jean-Jacques Rousseau – als Marie Antoinette noch in Wien wohnte und erst 10 Jahre alt war. Manche Historiker schreiben ihn Theresia von Spanien (1638-1683) zu, der ersten Frau Ludwigs XIV.
83
C’est pire qu’un crime, c’est une faute.
It was worse than a crime, it was a blunder.
Von Antoine Jacques Claude Joseph, comte Boulay de la Meurthe, French Politician
Reaction to the 1804 drumhead trial and execution of Louis Antoine de Bourbon, Duke of Enghien, on orders of Napoleon.