The Glory of the Empire Quotes

“so each day brought a further descent into the depths of concrete existence and a further ascent toward the heights of abstraction.”
― Jean d'Ormesson, The Glory of the Empire: A Novel, a History

“You are young to talk of dying," said the Emperor, looking at Jester. "Learn rather to live, to enjoy the gifts lavished so prodigally by an unknown god: the heat of the sun, the cool of the sea at noon, the scent of the forest in the evening, horses galloping across the plain. You are rich because you are alive. Even unhappiness is still life. Learn to love and enjoy, and learn also to suffer. And, when the time comes, you will learn to die.”
― Jean d'Ormesson, The glory of the Empire;: A novel, a history

“THERE IS SOMETHING DISPIRITING ABOUT THE MARCH of history. That web which never alters despite an infinite range of motifs and variations: the same struggle for power under ever-different masks; the vain triumphs, the declines and falls; the ever-recurring myths; the straining toward a future that, though it always eludes the grasp, never ceases to exert its pressure and make its demands; the turning wheel which changes yet does not change; the hopes always disappointed, the victories foredoomed to failure—whether the picture they paint of man expresses his greatness or his weakness, we shall never know. Both, probably—and both at the same time. Nothing is more futile than history, and yet history is man himself. Nothing is more accidental, nothing more necessary. Everything could probably have been otherwise. But everything is as it is, and forever.”
― Jean d'Ormesson, The Glory of the Empire: A Novel, a History

“The explanation is that it is rivals rather than enemies who hamper our beginnings, and it is against them we fight until the great conflicts arise which decide ways of life, modes of thought, and the meaning of history.”
― Jean d'Ormesson, The Glory of the Empire: A Novel, a History

“We shall all die. But we shall not die together. Something will be left behind us like a trail of light to transmit to succeeding generations all that is great in work and in the imagination. And more than crumbling palaces and mutilated statues, what shines forever in men's memories are the efforts of the mind to lift itself above everyday existence by laughter, terror, metaphysical thought, the beauty of the word, and the brilliance of ideas.”
― Jean d'Ormesson, The glory of the Empire;: A novel, a history