The Rebel Quotes

The society based on production is only productive, not creative.[La société de la production est seulement productrice, non créatrice.]

The slave begins by demanding justice and ends by wanting to wear a crown.[L’esclave commence par réclamer justice et finit par vouloir la royauté.]

The rebel does not ask for life, but for reasons for living.[Le révolté ne demande pas la vie, mais les raisons de la vie.]

The principle of painting is also to make a choice. “Even genius,” writes Delacroix, ruminating on his art, “is only the gift of generalizing and choosing.” The painter isolates his subject, which is the first way of unifying it. Landscapes flee, vanish from the memory, or destroy one another. That is why the landscape painter or the painter of still life isolates in space and time things that normally change with the light, get lost in an infinite perspective, or disappear under the impact of other values.[The principle of painting is also to make a choice. “Even genius,” writes Delacroix, ruminating on his art, “is only the gift of generalizing and choosing.” The painter isolates his subject, which is the first way of unifying it. Landscapes flee, vanish from the memory, or destroy one another. That is why the landscape painter or the painter of still life isolates in space and time things that normally change with the light, get lost in an infinite perspective, or disappear under the impact of other values.]

The myth of unlimited production brings war in its train as inevitably as clouds announce a storm.[Le mythe de la production indéfinie porte en lui la guerre comme la nuée l’orage.]

The ancients, even though they believed in destiny, believed primarily in nature, in which they participated wholeheartedly.[C’est que les Anciens, s’ils croyaient au destin, croyaient d’abord à la nature, à laquelle ils participaient.]

Subject-painting isolates, in both time and space, an action that normally would become lost in another action. Thus the painter arrives at a point of stabilization. The really great creative artists are those who, like Fiero della Francesca, give the impression that the stabilization has only just taken place, that the projection machine has suddenly stopped dead. All their subjects give the impression that, by some miracle of art, they continue to live, while ceasing to be mortal.[De même, la peinture de sujet isole dans le temps comme dans l’espace l’action qui, normalement, se perd dans une autre action. Le peintre procède alors à une fixation. Les grands créateurs sont ceux qui, comme Piero della Francesca, donnent l’impression que la fixation vient de se faire, l’appareil de projection de s’arrêter net. Tous leurs personnages donnent alors l’impression que, par le miracle de l’art, ils continuent d’être vivants, en cessant cependant d’être périssables.]

Rebellion is born of the spectacle of irrationality, confronted with an unjust and incomprehensible condition.[La révolte naît du spectacle de la déraison, devant une condition injuste et incompréhensible.]

Rebellion cannot exist without the feeling that, somewhere and somehow, one is right.[La révolte ne va pas sans le sentiment d’avoir soi-même, en quelque façon, et quelque part, raison.]

Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present.[La vraie générosité envers l’avenir consiste à tout donner au présent.]

Our civilization survives in the complacency of cowardly or malignant minds – a sacrifice to the vanity of aging adolescents.[Notre civilisation se survit dans la complaisance d’âmes lâches ou haineuses, le vœu de gloriole de vieux adolescents.]

One leader, one people, signifies one master and millions of slaves.[Un seul chef, un seul peuple, signifie un seul maître et des millions d’esclaves.]