La Fayette Quotes

My thoughts are violent and uncertain, and I am not able to control them; I no longer think myself worthy of you, nor do I think you are worthy of me; I adore you, I hate you, I offend you, I ask your pardon, I admire you, I blush for my admiration: in a word, I have nothing of tranquillity or reason left about me:

Enfin, des années entières s'étant passées, le temps et l'absence ralentirent sa douleur et éteignirent sa passion.

Je viens de perdre la triste consolation de croire que tous ceux qui osent vous regarder sont aussi malheureux que moi.

L'amour fit en lui ce qu'il fait en tous les autres: il lui donna l'envie de parler.

Je suis si persuadée que l'amour est une chose incommode que j'ai de la joie que mes amis et moi en soyons exempts.

On February 28, 1946, Jack Parsons went out into the Mojave Desert in order to invoke the beginning of the “age of the antichrist.” Parsons performed the ritual with the help of another participant, La Fayette Ron Hubbard (1911-1986)

Il y a des personnes à qui on n'ose donner d'autres marques de la passion qu'on a pour elles que par les choses qui ne les regardent point ; et, n'osant leur faire paraître qu'on les aime, on voudrait du moins qu'elles vissent que l'on ne veut être aimé de personne. L'on voudrait qu'elles sussent qu'il n'y a point de beauté, dans quelques rang qu'elle pût être, que l'on ne regardât avec indifférence, et qu'il n'y a point de couronne que l'on voulût acheter au prix de ne les voir jamais. Les femmes jugent d'ordinaire de la passion qu'on a pour elles, continua-t-il, par le soin qu'on prend de leur plaire et de les chercher ; mais ce n'est pas une chose difficile pour peu qu'elles soient aimables ; ce qui est difficile, c'est de ne s'abandonner pas au plaisir de les suivre ; c'est de les éviter, par peur de laisser paraître au public, et quasi à elles-mêmes, les sentiments que l'on a pour elles.

Insurrection is the most sacred of the rights and the most indispensable of duties.

My affliction would be very ordinary if I could describe it to you, so I won’t undertake it. I look in vain for my dear daughter, but can no longer find her, and her every step takes her further from me. So I went off to Sainte-Marie, still weeping, still lifeless. It seemed as if my heart and soul were being torn out of me, and truly, what a brutal separation! I asked to be free to be alone. I was taken into Mme du Housset’s room, where they lit a fire for me. Agnes looked at me but didn’t speak; such was our understanding. I stayed there until five and never stopped sobbing; all my thoughts were killing me. I wrote to M. de Grignan, in what tone you can well imagine. I went on to Mme de La Fayette’s, and she intensified my grief by the sympathy she showed. She was alone and ill, and depressed about the death of one of her sisters

How corrupt she is! Because she thinks you are beautiful and clever she wants to add to that this other quality, without which, according to her principles, one can’t be perfect. I am very upset about the harm she has done my son in this way. Don’t write to him to this effect. Mme de La Fayette and I are doing our best to get him out of such a dangerous entanglement. He also has a little actress, and all the Boileaus and Racines as well, for he is the one who pays for the suppers. In fact it is a real mess.

être point aimé ; que l'on craint toujours que sa beauté ne fasse naître quelque amour plus heureux que le sien. Enfin il trouve qu'il n'y a point de souffrance pareille à celle de voir sa maîtresse au bal, si ce n'est de savoir qu'elle y est et de n'y être pas.

I did not hesitate to be disagreeable to preserve my independence.

It became evident later that day that, when it came to revolutions, La Fayette was the only available expert.

Of course, with the arrival of both Washington and General Lincoln, La Fayette had lost his command and was again the leader of a mere division,

Americans thought of themselves as citizens of their sovereign states, not of the nation, and La Fayette was perhaps the only real American:

Washington's last will and testament included the following: "To General de la Fayette I give a pair of finely wrought steel pistols, taken from the enemy in the Revolutionary war."32 Washington died in 1799, and the inventory of his estate lists seven swords and seven guns in the study, "1 pr Steel Pistols" and "3 pr Pistols" in an iron chest, "1 Old Gun" in the storehouse, and one gun at the River Farm.33 Patrick Henry died a few months earlier, also in 1799, and the inventory of his estate includes "1 large Gun" and "1 pr. pistols.

J'avoue que les passions peuvent me conduire; mais elles me sauraient pas m'aveugler.

If you judge from appearances here,' replied Madame de Chartres, 'you will be often mistaken; what appears is seldom the truth.