Anatole France Quotes

Most popular Anatole France Quotes

Our passions are ourselves. - Anatole France quote.
Our passions are ourselves.
— Anatole France
In art as in love, instinct is enough. - Anatole France quote.
In art as in love, instinct is enough.
— Anatole France

art

The future is a convenient place for dreams. - Anatole France quote.
The future is a convenient place for dreams.
— Anatole France French Folly in Maxims of Philosophy

future

It is by acts and not by ideas that men live. - Anatole France quote.
It is by acts and not by ideas that men live.
— Anatole France
The domestic hearth. There only is real happiness. - Anatole France quote.
The domestic hearth. There only is real happiness.
— Anatole France
To know is nothing at all; to imagine is everything. - Anatole France quote.
To know is nothing at all; to imagine is everything.
— Anatole France
To imagine is everything, to know is nothing at all. - Anatole France quote.
To imagine is everything, to know is nothing at all.
— Anatole France

imagination

Time preserves nothing that you make without its help. - Anatole France quote.
Time preserves nothing that you make without its help.
— Anatole France
Of all the sexual aberrations, chastity is the strangest. - Anatole France quote.
Of all the sexual aberrations, chastity is the strangest.
— Anatole France

sex

Existence would be intolerable if we were never to dream. - Anatole France quote.
Existence would be intolerable if we were never to dream.
— Anatole France
Without lies humanity would perish of despair and boredom. - Anatole France quote.
Without lies humanity would perish of despair and boredom.
— Anatole France The Bloom of Life

lies

Innocence, most often, is a good fortune and not a virtue. - Anatole France quote.
Innocence, most often, is a good fortune and not a virtue.
— Anatole France
It is human nature to think wisely and act in an absurd fashion. - Anatole France quote.
It is human nature to think wisely and act in an absurd fashion.
— Anatole France

funny human nature

No matter how much we seek, we never find anything but ourselves. - Anatole France quote.
No matter how much we seek, we never find anything but ourselves.
— Anatole France in Saturday Review

seeking

A writer is rarely so well inspired as when he talks about himself. - Anatole France quote.
A writer is rarely so well inspired as when he talks about himself.
— Anatole France

egotism writers

It is the certainty that they possess the truth that makes men cruel. - Anatole France quote.
It is the certainty that they possess the truth that makes men cruel.
— Anatole France Nobel Wisdom: The 1000 Wisest Things Ever Said

certainty

Human affairs inspire in noble hearts only two feelings — admiration or pity. - Anatole France quote.
Human affairs inspire in noble hearts only two feelings — admiration or pity.
— Anatole France
Life teaches us that we are never happy except at the price of some ignorance. - Anatole France quote.
Life teaches us that we are never happy except at the price of some ignorance.
— Anatole France On Life & Letters

ignorance

The good critic is he who relates the adventures of his soul among masterpieces. - Anatole France quote.
The good critic is he who relates the adventures of his soul among masterpieces.
— Anatole France

critics

People with no faults are terrible; there is no way of taking advantage of them. - Anatole France quote.
People with no faults are terrible; there is no way of taking advantage of them.
— Anatole France
Let our teaching be full of ideas. Hitherto it has been stuffed only with facts. - Anatole France quote.
Let our teaching be full of ideas. Hitherto it has been stuffed only with facts.
— Anatole France
Simple style is like white light. It is complex but its complexity is not obvious. - Anatole France quote.
Simple style is like white light. It is complex but its complexity is not obvious.
— Anatole France
The finest words in the world are only vain sounds, if you can not comprehend them. - Anatole France quote.
The finest words in the world are only vain sounds, if you can not comprehend them.
— Anatole France
People who have no faults are terrible; there is no way of taking advantage of them. - Anatole France quote.
People who have no faults are terrible; there is no way of taking advantage of them.
— Anatole France

shortcomings

People who have no weaknesses are terrible; there is no way of taking advantage of them. - Anatole France quote.
People who have no weaknesses are terrible; there is no way of taking advantage of them.
— Anatole France The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard

weakness

One must learn to think well before learning to think; afterward it proves too difficult. - Anatole France quote.
One must learn to think well before learning to think; afterward it proves too difficult.
— Anatole France

critical thinking thinking

Man is so made that he can only find relaxation from one kind of labor by taking up another. - Anatole France quote.
Man is so made that he can only find relaxation from one kind of labor by taking up another.
— Anatole France The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard

relaxation

Men are made that they can only find relaxation from one kind of labor by taking up another. - Anatole France quote.
Men are made that they can only find relaxation from one kind of labor by taking up another.
— Anatole France
Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe. - Anatole France quote.
Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe.
— Anatole France

Travel

He prided himself on being a man without prejudice, and this itself is a very great prejudice. - Anatole France quote.
He prided himself on being a man without prejudice, and this itself is a very great prejudice.
— Anatole France

prejudice

That man is prudent who neither hopes nor fears anything from the uncertain events of the future. - Anatole France quote.
That man is prudent who neither hopes nor fears anything from the uncertain events of the future.
— Anatole France
I like truth; I think mankind needs it. But without lies humanity would be die of boredom and futility. - Anatole France quote.
I like truth; I think mankind needs it. But without lies humanity would be die of boredom and futility.
— Anatole France
What is traveling? Changing your place? By no means! Traveling is changing your opinions and your prejudices. - Anatole France quote.
What is traveling? Changing your place? By no means! Traveling is changing your opinions and your prejudices.
— Anatole France

Travel

Irony and pity are two good counselors: one, in smiling, makes life pleasurable; the other who cries, makes it sacred. - Anatole France quote.
Irony and pity are two good counselors: one, in smiling, makes life pleasurable; the other who cries, makes it sacred.
— Anatole France Le jardin d’Epicure

irony

Only men who are not interested in women are interested in women's clothes. Men who like women never notice what they wear. - Anatole France quote.
Only men who are not interested in women are interested in women's clothes. Men who like women never notice what they wear.
— Anatole France

men fashion

In its majestic equality, the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets and steal loaves of bread. - Anatole France quote.
In its majestic equality, the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets and steal loaves of bread.
— Anatole France Le Lys Rouge [The Red Lily] (1894)

law

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. - Anatole France quote.
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.
— Anatole France

law

The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards. - Anatole France quote.
The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards.
— Anatole France The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard

teaching curiosity

An education which does not cultivate the will is an education that depraves the mind.  It is a teacher's duty to teach the pupil how to will. - Anatole France quote.
An education which does not cultivate the will is an education that depraves the mind.  It is a teacher's duty to teach the pupil how to will.
— Anatole France The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard

for teachers education

The heart errs like the head; its errors are not any the less fatal, and we have more trouble getting free of them because of their sweetness. - Anatole France quote.
The heart errs like the head; its errors are not any the less fatal, and we have more trouble getting free of them because of their sweetness.

head and heart

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. - Anatole France quote.
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.
— Anatole France

love

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. - Anatole France quote.
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.
— Anatole France

education

Universal peace will be realized, not because mankind will become better, but because a new order of things, a new science, new economic necessities, will impose peace. - Anatole France quote.
Universal peace will be realized, not because mankind will become better, but because a new order of things, a new science, new economic necessities, will impose peace.
— Anatole France
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! - Anatole France quote.
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!
— Anatole France The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard

changing people change

Criticism is, like philosophy and history, a sort of romance designed for those who have sagacious and curious minds, and every romance is, rightly taken, an autobiography. - Anatole France quote.
Criticism is, like philosophy and history, a sort of romance designed for those who have sagacious and curious minds, and every romance is, rightly taken, an autobiography.
— Anatole France The Literary Life

criticism

Suffering—how divine it is, how misunderstood!  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. - Anatole France quote.
Suffering—how divine it is, how misunderstood!  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.
— Anatole France The Garden of Epicurus

suffering

An education which does not cultivate the will is an education that depraves the mind.
— Anatole France The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard

will

The good critic is he who relates the adventures of his soul in the midst of masterpieces.
— Anatole France The Literary Life

critics

In its majestic equality, the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets, and steal loaves of bread.
— Anatole France The Red Lily

law