Emile Chartier Quotes

Emile Chartier delivers thoughtful, plain-spoken musings on ideas, proof and the limits of belief.

22 quotes

1. To think is to say no.

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

3. Nothing is more dangerous than an idea, when it's the only one we have.

4. Every boat is copied from another boat... Let's reason as follows in the manner of Darwin. It is clear that a very badly made boat will end up at the bottom after one or two voyages, and thus never be copied... One could then say, with complete rigor, that it is the sea herself who fashions the boats, choosing those which function and destroying the others.

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

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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.

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

12. 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.

13. 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.

14. 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.

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

16. 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.'

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

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

19. Pessimism comes from the temperament, optimism from the will.

20. 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.

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

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