Anatole France Quotes

It is by acts, and not by ideas, that people ensure the bar down the street cannot have a patio.

I do not know any reading more easy, more fascinating, more delightful than a catalogue.

All the good writers of confessions, from Augustine onwards, are men who are still a little in love with their sins.

The Arab who built himself a hut with marbles from the temple of Palmyra is more philosophical than all the curators of the museums of London, Paris, and Munich.

That child whose mother has never smiled upon him is worthy neither of the table of the gods nor the couch of the goddesses.

I ought not to fear to survive my own people so long as there are men in the world; for there are always some whom one can love.

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

To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act.

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

It is the certainty that they possess the truth that makes men cruel. -Anatole France, novelist, essayist, Nobel laureate (1844-1924)

I never go into the country for a change of air and a holiday. I always go instead into the eighteenth century.

For the majority of people, though they do not know what to do with this life, long for another that shall have no end.

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

All writers of confessions from Augustine on down, have always remained a little in love with their sins.

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

What can be more foolish than to think that all this rare fabric of heaven and earth could come by chance?

The history books which contain no lies are extremely tedious

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

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.

Never lend books - nobody ever returns them the only books I have in my library are those which people have lent me.

I do not know any reading more easy more fascinating more delightful than a catalogue.

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

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

One must never lose time in vainly regretting the past or in complaining against the changes which cause us discomfort for change is the essence of life.

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 into another.

And the thing has been said and said well have no scruple. Take it and copy it.

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

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

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

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.

Simple style is like white light. It is complex but its complexity is not obvious.

The future is hidden even from those who make it.

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

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.

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.