Alphonse de Lamartine

French author, poet and statesman (1790-1869)

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Lived 1790–1869, aged 79France

France WritersWriter / Author

Wikipedia
60 languages
Cross-language footprint
Era
1790–1869
Aged 79
Known for
He Who Is Without Sin...
1952

Summary

Updated 2026-06-21

He wrote the Romantic verse that made him France's most beloved poet, then stood in the street during the 1848 revolution and talked a mob out of tearing down the tricolor — before losing the presidency to a Bonaparte.

Biography

About

Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine was born 21 October 1790 into minor nobility and began as a moderate royalist. By the 1840s he'd become one of the sharpest critics of Louis-Philippe's July Monarchy, drifting toward the Republican Left and Social Catholicism. When revolution broke out in 1848 he helped found the Second Republic, preserved the tricolor as France's flag, and served as Foreign Minister through that volatile year, spending much of his energy defusing clashes between the government and the working class. He ran for president in 1848 and lost to Louis Napoleon Bonaparte. Af…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Alphonse de Lamartine

Alphonse de Lamartine

said1850

The more I see of the representatives of the people, the more I admire my dogs.

— From Count d'Orsay's Letter to John Forster (1850)

Alphonse de Lamartine

said1849

Silence is the winding-sheet of the past: it is sometimes impious, often dangerous to raise it. But even when it is raised piously and lovingly, the first moment is a cruel one.

— Book I, Note I, p. 18

Alphonse de Lamartine

said1847