Jean-François Marmontel

thumb|En général le ridicule touche au sublime.Generally the ridiculous touches the sublime. Jean-François Marmontel (11 July 1723 – 31 December 1799) was a French historian, writer and a member of the Encyclopédistes movement. Quotes Dictionary of Quotations: French and Italian (1904) T. B. Harbottle and P. H. Dalbiac (eds.) Ce temps, si court, a des langueurs mortellesQuand l'âme oisive en compte les instans:C'est le travail qui lui donne des ailes. Time that's so short with mortal sloth doth moveWhene'er the soul its moments idly counts:'Tis by toil only that on wings it mounts. Les Charmes de l'Etude Dans les espaces immenses de l'erreur, la vérité n'est qu'un point. Qui l'a saisi, ce point unique? In the immeasurable realms of error truth is but a point. Who has seized this single point? Bélisaire, ch. 15 (ed. 1819, vol. 7, p. 165) Il n'est pas permis à tous les hommes d'être grands, mais ils peuvent tous être bons. It is not permitted to all men to be great, but all can be good. Lettre à Voltaire, 20 October 1769 L'éloquence est dans l'âme, et non dans la parole. Eloquence is in the soul, not in the tongue." Discours sur l'Eloquence Le ciel, l'enfer sont dans le cœur de l'homme. Heaven and hell are in the heart of the man. Les Charmes de l'Etude Où peut-on être mieuxQu'au sein de sa famille? Where can one better beThan in the bosom of one's family? Lucile, sc. 4 (Chorus) En général le ridicule touche au sublime, et pour marcher sur la limite qui les sépare, sans la passer jamais, il faut bien prendre garde à soi. As a rule the ridiculous touches the sublime, and to follow the line of demarcation between them without ever overstepping it requires constant watchfulness. Eléments de Littérature, vol. 1, art. "Ampoulé" Hoyt's New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations (1922) Kate Louise Roberts (ed.) Quand on n'a pas ce que l'on aime, il faut aimer ce que l'on a. If one does not possess what one loves, one should love what one has. Quoted by Moore in Irish Melodies, no. 3 (1810), "The Irish Peasant to His Mistress", note En général le ridicule touche au sublime. Generally the ridiculous touches the sublime. Œuvres Complettes (1787), vol. 5, p. 188 Misattributed Je reprends mon bien où je le trouve. I recover my property wherever I find it. Molière. Cyrano de Bergerac incorporated a scene confidentially communicated to him by Molière, in his Pédant Joué, act 2, sc. 4. Molière taking possession, used it in his Les Fourberies de Scapin. Emerson—Letters and Social Aims, attributes the mot to Marmontel. Reported in Hoyt's (1922), p. 599 External links Category:1723 births Category:1799 deaths Category:Historians from France Category:Novelists from France Category:Poets from France Category:Playwrights from France Category:Journalists from France Category:Memoirists from France Category:Members of the Académie Française