Perfect works are rare, because they must be produced at the happy moment when taste and genius unite; and this rare conjuncture, like that of certain planets, appears to occur only after the revolution of several cycles, and only lasts for an instant.

François-René de Chateaubriand (1768-1848) French writer, politican, diplomat

(Attributed)
    (Source)

Quoted in James Wood, Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources (1893).