Without taste genius is only a sublime kind of folly. That sure touch which the lyre gives back the right note and nothing more, is even a rarer gift than the creative faculty itself.
~ Vicomte De Chateaubriand - [Taste]

Perfect works are rare, because they must be produced at the happy moment when taste and genius unite; and this rare conjuncture, like that of certain planets, appears to occur only after the revolution of several cycles, and only lasts for an instant.
~ Vicomte De Chateaubriand - [Perfection]

Let us not disdain glory too much; nothing is finer, except virtue. The height of happiness would be to unite both in this life.
~ Vicomte De Chateaubriand - [Fame]

Aristocracy has three successive ages. First superiority s, then privileges and finally vanities. Having passed from the first, it degenerates in the second and dies in the third.
~ Vicomte De Chateaubriand - [Aristocracy]