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Anatole France's Quotes

Anatole France profile photo

Born: 1970-01-01
Profession: Novelist
Nation: French
Biography of Anatole France

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That man is prudent who neither hopes nor fears anything from the uncertain events of the future.

Tags: Fear, Future, Nor

We do not know what to do with this short life, yet we want another which will be eternal.

Tags: Another, Life, Short

What can be more foolish than to think that all this rare fabric of heaven and earth could come by chance, when all the skill of art is not able to make an oyster!

Tags: Able, Art, Chance

Existence would be intolerable if we were never to dream.

Tags: Dream, Existence

History books that contain no lies are extremely dull.

Tags: Books, History, Lies

Nine tenths of education is encouragement.

Tags: Education, Nine

Irony is the gaiety of reflection and the joy of wisdom.

Tags: Joy, Reflection, Wisdom

The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself a fool.

Tags: Fool, Himself, Wise

Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe.

Tags: Between, Once, Universe

Innocence most often is a good fortune and not a virtue.

Tags: Good, Often, Virtue

It is only the poor who pay cash, and that not from virtue, but because they are refused credit.

Tags: Pay, Poor, Virtue

The good critic is he who relates the adventures of his soul among masterpieces.

Tags: Among, Good, Soul

What frightens us most in a madman is his sane conversation.

Tags: Frightens, Madman, Sane

A person is never happy except at the price of some ignorance.

Tags: Except, Happy, Ignorance

Chance is perhaps the pseudonym of God when he did not want to sign.

Tags: Chance, God, Perhaps

Ignorance and error are necessary to life, like bread and water.

Tags: Ignorance, Life, Water

There are very honest people who do not think that they have had a bargain unless they have cheated a merchant.

Tags: Cheated, Honest, Unless

An education which does not cultivate the will is an education that depraves the mind.

Tags: Cultivate, Education, Mind

Of all the sexual aberrations, chastity is the strangest.

Tags: Chastity, Sexual, Strangest

Of all the ways of defining man, the worst is the one which makes him out to be a rational animal.

Tags: Him, Makes, Worst

One thing above all gives charm to men's thoughts, and this is unrest. A mind that is not uneasy irritates and bores me.

Tags: Men, Mind, Thoughts

Silence is the wit of fools.

Tags: Fools, Silence, Wit

Suffering! We owe to it all that is good in us, all that gives value to life; we owe to it pity, we owe to it courage, we owe to it all the virtues.

Tags: Courage, Good, Life

The books that everybody admires are those that nobody reads.

Tags: Books, Everybody, Nobody

The greatest virtue of man is perhaps curiosity.

Tags: Curiosity, Greatest, Virtue

We reproach people for talking about themselves; but it is the subject they treat best.

Tags: Best, Themselves, Treat
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When a thing has been said and well, have no scruple. Take it and copy it.

Tags: Copy, Said

Without lies humanity would perish of despair and boredom.

Tags: Boredom, Humanity, Lies

No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free, no one ever will. Chance is the pseudonym of God when he did not want to sign.

Tags: Free, God, Government

The poor have to labour in the face of the majestic equality of the law, which forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.

Tags: Equality, Law, Sleep

War will disappear only when men shall take no part whatever in violence and shall be ready to suffer every persecution that their abstention will bring them. It is the only way to abolish war.

Tags: Men, Violence, War

All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.

Tags: Change, Die, Life

To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.

Tags: Dream, Dreams, Great

An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you know and what you don't.

Tags: Able, Between, Education

Until one has loved an animal a part of one's soul remains unawakened.

Tags: Pet, Soul, Until

In art as in love, instinct is enough.

Tags: Art, Enough, Love

The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.

Tags: Equality, Law, Sleep

The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards.

Tags: Art, Teacher, Young

It is well for the heart to be naive and the mind not to be.

Tags: Heart, Mind, Naive

I thank fate for having made me born poor. Poverty taught me the true value of the gifts useful to life.

Tags: Life, Poor, True

It is better to understand little than to misunderstand a lot.

Tags: Understand

Only men who are not interested in women are interested in women's clothes. Men who like women never notice what they wear.

Tags: Interested, Men, Women

If the path be beautiful, let us not ask where it leads.

Tags: Ask, Beautiful, Path

To imagine is everything, to know is nothing at all.

Tags: Imagination, Imagine

You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working; in just the same way, you learn to love by loving.

Tags: Love, Work, Working

I prefer the folly of enthusiasm to the indifference of wisdom.

Tags: Enthusiasm, Folly, Wisdom

Never lend books, for no one ever returns them; the only books I have in my library are books that other folks have left me.

Tags: Books, Left, Library

Devout believers are safeguarded in a high degree against the risk of certain neurotic illnesses; their acceptance of the universal neurosis spares them the task of constructing a personal one.

Tags: Acceptance, Against, Personal

Religion has done love a great service by making it a sin.

Tags: Great, Love, Religion

If a million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.

Tags: Foolish, Million

It is by acts and not by ideas that people live.

Tags: Acts, Ideas, Inspirational

Lovers who love truly do not write down their happiness.

Tags: Happiness, Love, Write

It is human nature to think wisely and act in an absurd fashion.

Tags: Fashion, Human, Nature

The truth is that life is delicious, horrible, charming, frightful, sweet, bitter, and that is everything.

Tags: Life, Sweet, Truth

The average man does not know what to do with this life, yet wants another one which will last forever.

Tags: Another, Last, Life

Nature has no principles. She makes no distinction between good and evil.

Tags: Evil, Good, Nature

A man is already halfway in love with any woman who listens to him.

Tags: Him, Love, Woman

At the innermost core of all loneliness is a deep and powerful yearning for union with one's lost self.

Tags: Deep, Loneliness, Powerful

A quotation in a speech, article or book is like a rifle in the hands of an infantryman. It speaks with authority.

Tags: Book, Hands, Speech

Inspirations never go in for long engagements; they demand immediate marriage to action.

Tags: Action, Demand, Marriage

No yesterdays are ever wasted for those who give themselves to today.

Tags: Give, Themselves, Today

No man can discover his own talents.

Tags: Discover, Talents

Every man, through fear, mugs his aspirations a dozen times a day.

Tags: Dozen, Fear, Times

If you accept your limitations you go beyond them.

Tags: Accept, Beyond

If you greatly desire something, have the guts to stake everything on obtaining it.

Tags: Desire, Greatly, Guts

What an author likes to write most is his signature on the back of a cheque.

Tags: Author, Likes, Write

The prospect of success in achieving our most cherished dream is not without its terrors. Who is more deprived and alone than the man who has achieved his dream?

Tags: Alone, Dream, Success

If one of two lovers is loyal, and the other jealous and false, how may their friendship last, for Love is slain!

Tags: Friendship, Jealousy, Love

For above all things Love means sweetness, and truth, and measure; yea, loyalty to the loved one and to your word. And because of this I dare not meddle with so high a matter.

Tags: Love, Loyalty, Truth

The fool shouts loudly, thinking to impress the world.

Tags: Fool, Impress, Thinking

Great were the lamentation and the cry when the news of this mischance was noised about the city. Such a tumult of mourning was never before heard, for the whole city was moved.

Tags: Cry, Great, Whole

There are divers men who make a great show of loyalty, and pretend to such discretion in the hidden things they hear, that at the end folk come to put faith in them.

Tags: Faith, Great, Men

Be sure that you speak with unfeigned lips.

Tags: Lips, Speak, Sure

But sweetly and discreetly love passes from person to person, from heart to heart, or it is nothing worth.

Tags: Heart, Love, Worth

He who would tell divers tales must know how to vary the tune.

Tags: Tales, Tell, Tune

I love no woman, for love is a serious business, not a jest.

Tags: Business, Love, Woman

Out of five hundred who speak glibly of love, not one can spell the first letter of his name.

Tags: Love, Name, Speak

The dead and past stories that I have told again in divers fashions, are not set down without authority.

Tags: Again, Dead, Past

Whosoever counts these Lays as fable, may be assured that I am not of his mind.

Tags: Counts, May, Mind

Fairest and dearest, your wrath and anger are more heavy than I can bear; but learn that I cannot tell what you wish me to say without sinning against my honour too grievously.

Tags: Anger, Cannot, Wish

For what the lover would, that would the beloved; what she would ask of him that should he go before to grant. Without accord such as this, love is but a bond and a constraint.

Tags: Him, Love, She

Now will I rehearse before you a very ancient Breton Lay. As the tale was told to me, so, in turn, will I tell it over again, to the best of my art and knowledge. Hearken now to my story, its why and its reason.

Tags: Art, Best, Knowledge

Just as we reject racism, sexism, ageism, and heterosexism, we reject speciesism. The species of a sentient being is no more reason to deny the protection of this basic right than race, sex, age, or sexual orientation is a reason to deny membership in the human moral community to other humans.

Tags: Age, Human, Sex

Michael Vick may enjoy watching dogs fight. Someone else may find that repulsive but see nothing wrong with eating an animal who has had a life as full of pain and suffering as the lives of the fighting dogs. It's strange that we regard the latter as morally different from, and superior to, the former.

Tags: Fight, Life, Pain

Because animals are property, we consider as 'humane treatment' that we would regard as torture if it were inflicted on humans.

Tags: Consider, Property, Torture

We do not think clearly about our moral obligations to animals.

Tags: Clearly, Moral

We do not need to eat animals, wear animals, or use animals for entertainment purposes, and our only defense of these uses is our pleasure, amusement, and convenience.

Tags: Eat, Pleasure, Wear

The proposition that humans have mental characteristics wholly absent in non-humans is inconsistent with the theory of evolution.

Tags: Evolution, Mental, Theory

There is increasing social concern about our use of nonhumans for experiments, food, clothing and entertainment. This concern about animals reflects both our own moral development as a civilization and our recognition that the differences between humans and animals are, for the most part, differences of degree and not of kind.

Tags: Between, Food, Moral

There is no 'need' for us to eat meat, dairy or eggs. Indeed, these foods are increasingly linked to various human diseases and animal agriculture is an environmental disaster for the planet.

Tags: Animal, Eat, Human

There is no moral distinction between fur and other materials made from animals, such as leather, which also is the result of the suffering and death of sentient beings.

Tags: Between, Death, Suffering

We eat animals because they taste good. And if that's O.K., what's wrong with wearing fur? We need as a society to think seriously about our institutionalized animal use.

Tags: Good, Society, Wrong
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