Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.
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.
To accomplish great things, we must not only act but also dream, not only plan, but also believe!
To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act.
Time deals gently only with those who take it gently.
It is the certainty that they possess the truth that makes men cruel.
We have never heard the devil’s side of the story, God wrote all the book.
The average man, who does not know what to do with his life, wants another one which will last forever.
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.
Never lend books, for no one ever returns them; the only books I have in my library are books that other folks have lent me.
The books that everybody admires are those that nobody reads.
To accomplish great things we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.(From an introductory speech at a session of the Académie Française, December 24, 1896)
It is the certainty that they possess the truth that makes men cruel. -Anatole France, novelist, essayist, Nobel laureate (1844-1924)
If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we aren’t really living.
I never go into the country for a change of air and a holiday. I always go instead into the eighteenth century.
Of all sexual aberrations, chastity is the strangest.
For the majority of people, though they do not know what to do with this life, long for another that shall have no end.
It is good to collect things, but it is better to go on walks.
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.
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.
All writers of confessions from Augustine on down, have always remained a little in love with their sins.
Man is so made that he can only find relaxation from one kind of labor by taking up another.
If the path be beautiful, let us not ask where it leads.
All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind usis a part of ourselves. We must die to one life before we can enter another
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
Each one dreams the dream of life in his own way. I have dreamed it in my library; and when the hour shall come in which I must leave this world, may it please God to take me from my ladder—from before my shelves of books!…
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.
The mania of thinking renders one unfit for every activity.
Time deals gently only with those who take it gently.
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.
Lack of understanding is a great power. Sometimes it enables men to conquer the world.
A writer is rarely so well inspired as when he talks about himself.
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.
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.
Simple style is like white light. It is complex but its complexity is not obvious.
It is human nature to think wisely and to act in an absurd fashion.
I prefer the errors of enthusiasm to the indifference of wisdom.
To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.
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.
Nature has no principles. She makes no distinction between good and evil.
The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards.
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.
Lovers who love truly do not write down their happiness.
Only men who are not interested in women are interested in women’s clothes. Men who like women never notice what they wear.
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.
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!
Chance is perhaps the pseudonym of God when he did not want to sign.
Until one has loved an animal a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.
That man is prudent who neither hopes nor fears anything from the uncertain events of the future.
The truth is that life is delicious, horrible, charming, frightful, sweet, bitter, and that is everything.
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.
To imagine is everything, to know is nothing at all.
I prefer the folly of enthusiasm to the indifference of wisdom.
Irony is the gaiety of reflection and the joy of wisdom.