Eternity is so certain and so terrible that a thousand lives would not suffice to prepare for it.
Alphonse de LamartineIt is admirable to die the victim of one's faith; it is sad to die the dupe of one's ambition.
Alphonse de LamartineReligions are not proved, are not demonstrated, are not established, are not overthrown by logic! They are of all the mysteries of nature and the human mind, the most mysterious and most inexplicable; they are of instinct and not of reason.
Alphonse de LamartineIf greatness of purpose, smallness of means, and astonishing results are the three criteria of a human genius, who could dare compare any great man in history with Muhammad? The most famous men created arms, laws, and empires only. They founded, if anything at all, no more than material powers which often crumbled away before their eyes. This man moved not only armies, legislations, empires, peoples, dynasties, but millions of men in one-third of the then inhabited world; and more than that, he moved the altars, the gods, the religions, the ideas, the beliefs and the souls.
Alphonse de Lamartine