The acts of the human race on the world's stage have doubtless a coherent unity, but the meaning of the vast tragedy enacted will be visible only to the eye of God, until the end, which will reveal it perhaps to the last man.
Alfred de Vigny

On the day when man told the story of his life to man, history was born.
Alfred de Vigny

Of what use is the memory of facts, if not to serve as an example of good or of evil?
Alfred de Vigny

Of late years (perhaps as a result of our political changes) art has borrowed from history more than ever.
Alfred de Vigny

Art ought never to be considered except in its relations with its ideal beauty.
Alfred de Vigny

The human mind, I believe, cares for the True only in the general character of an epoch.
Alfred de Vigny

What it values most of all is the sum total of events and the advance of civilization, which carries individuals along with it; but, indifferent to details, it cares less to have them real than noble or, rather, grand and complete.
Alfred de Vigny

I think, then, that man, after having satisfied his first longing for facts, wanted something fuller - some grouping, some adaptation to his capacity and experience, of the links of this vast chain of events which his sight could not take in.
Alfred de Vigny