Words matter. These are the best Anatole France Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The average man does not know what to do with this life, yet wants another one which will last forever.
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.
The greatest virtue of man is perhaps curiosity.
One thing above all gives charm to men’s thoughts, and this is unrest. A mind that is not uneasy irritates and bores me.
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.
Of all the sexual aberrations, chastity is the strangest.
The greatest virtue of man is perhaps curiosity.
That man is prudent who neither hopes nor fears anything from the uncertain events of the future.
Chance is perhaps the pseudonym of God when he did not want to sign.
If a million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.
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.
Silence is the wit of fools.
When a thing has been said and well, have no scruple. Take it and copy it.
I prefer the folly of enthusiasm to the indifference of wisdom.
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.
Lovers who love truly do not write down their happiness.
The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself a fool.
That man is prudent who neither hopes nor fears anything from the uncertain events of the future.
In art as in love, instinct is enough.
Of all the sexual aberrations, chastity is the strangest.
Irony is the gaiety of reflection and the joy of wisdom.
History books that contain no lies are extremely dull.
To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.
What frightens us most in a madman is his sane conversation.
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.
An education which does not cultivate the will is an education that depraves the mind.
It is better to understand little than to misunderstand a lot.
Nature has no principles. She makes no distinction between good and evil.
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.
Nine tenths of education is encouragement.
It is human nature to think wisely and act in an absurd fashion.
Chance is perhaps the pseudonym of God when he did not want to sign.
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.
If the path be beautiful, let us not ask where it leads.
Religion has done love a great service by making it a sin.
I prefer the folly of enthusiasm to the indifference of wisdom.
The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards.
If the path be beautiful, let us not ask where it leads.
It is well for the heart to be naive and the mind not to be.
Ignorance and error are necessary to life, like bread and water.
Until one has loved an animal a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.
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!
There are very honest people who do not think that they have had a bargain unless they have cheated a merchant.
A person is never happy except at the price of some ignorance.
The books that everybody admires are those that nobody reads.
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.
One thing above all gives charm to men’s thoughts, and this is unrest. A mind that is not uneasy irritates and bores me.
It is only the poor who pay cash, and that not from virtue, but because they are refused credit.
It is human nature to think wisely and act in an absurd fashion.
The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself a fool.
The good critic is he who relates the adventures of his soul among masterpieces.
There are very honest people who do not think that they have had a bargain unless they have cheated a merchant.
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.
Irony is the gaiety of reflection and the joy of wisdom.
Innocence most often is a good fortune and not a virtue.
We reproach people for talking about themselves; but it is the subject they treat best.
Of all the ways of defining man, the worst is the one which makes him out to be a rational animal.
Existence would be intolerable if we were never to dream.
It is better to understand little than to misunderstand a lot.
The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards.
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.
Without lies humanity would perish of despair and boredom.
Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe.
Silence is the wit of fools.
Nine tenths of education is encouragement.
Religion has done love a great service by making it a sin.
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.
If a million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.
An education which does not cultivate the will is an education that depraves the mind.
Of all the ways of defining man, the worst is the one which makes him out to be a rational animal.
